Lorenz Mazon Dumuk
ISBN: 9781965439029
Cover Art: Lorenz Mazon Dumuk
Book Design: Keana Aguila Labra
Paper | 6 x 9 | 96 Pages
Publication Date: November 21, 2024
Distributors: Bookshop, Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Price: $20
Synopsis
Lorenz Mazon Dumuk’s Held explores the slipping of time, the struggle of keeping and letting go of memories, and navigating how to be in one’s own body and thoughts. Held curates personal narratives and reimagines the natural world into spectacles of childlike wonder. Dumuk holds joy and grief, evoking bliss through his humor and words. A magnificent poetic experience, Held is not afraid to be vulnerable, baring itself to grief yet singing hope sweetly into one’s ear.
Advance Praise
“Lorenz Mazon Dumuk is a poet of great compassion, generosity, and humor—and his debut book of poetry, HELD, celebrates all of those attributes of self. Whether he is communing with his ancestors and family, examining the many facets of himself, or exploring the idea of manatee farts, Dumuk brings a deep resonance of heart and soul into every poem. In his poem ‘Offspring of Victor Frankenstein,’ he writes, ‘at least a name would help bind / the collection that is you.’ In the same way, these poems are naming, breath, laughter, and prayer bringing the pieces of the poet and his words together into a beautiful, lyrical wholeness.”
—Andrea Blythe, author of Twelve: Poems Inspired by the Brothers Grimm Fairytale
“Held is a collection of cosmic connections, the deep grounding roots of grief, and the blooms that unfurl through the work of healing in community and in communion with nature. Lorenz Mazon Dumuk’s debut collection celebrates the way our spirits are held by the natural beauty and inherent joy of this planet, as well as the stories we carry for our ancestors—stories that sometimes act as instructions for spiritual survival. In this collection, asteroids become collisions to reckon with in the body, and men learn to dismantle the ‘disconnection between heart and mind’ in order to ‘love the singularity of one’s self.’ Dumuk writes for all of us who sometimes feel we are not enough, and reminds us that we are trees and peacocks waiting to discover our own celestial sexiness, a ‘spell of loving the self,’ that spans across lifetimes and otherworldly portals of existence.”
—Suzana Quezada, educator/poet
“What happens to the body, to the soul, and to the self during rapturous moments? In reflection, in mourning? In joy? Lorenz Mazon Dumuk’s debut full-length collection Held is an exploration of just that — it observes the body in nature, among spirit, the spirit within the body. How these layers of have the ability to fold into, or upend, each other. Carrying a a deep and serious love for community and family is not without its silliness. In one moment, we hold each other in our sadness and in the next, we’re giggling about poop. Held is about being human, returning and embodying one’s self, fully, and what it means to hold each other.”
—Keana Aguila Labra, author of The Language of Unbreaking
Lorenz Mazon Dumuk has two collections of poetry, Ay Nako: Writing Through the Struggle, and I Think In Poetry. He is an alum of both VONA and MALI (Multicultural Arts Leadership Institute), which the latter is a Silicon Valley based program that focuses on developing leaders of color in the arts, culture, and entertainment sectors. He is one of the curators for Glowing with the Moon, an open mic and interactive community space in San Jose. Lorenz writes with, against, and through the contradictions he encounters, which allows him to explore the different silences in his life through his poetry. An awkwardly adorable poet who can be caught doing hip-circles before a poetry reading.