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This poem is from the chapbook guilty as an orchid by Richard Haney-Jardine (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/guilty-as-an-orchid-by-richard-haney-jardine/
Richard Haney-Jardine, born and raised in Venezuela, grew up speaking and writing in Spanish, English, and French. At 15, he came to the US to study at Phillips Exeter Academy, where he worked individually (albeit briefly) with Gwendolyn Brooks, Jorge Luis Borges, and Thom Gunn. He received a full scholarship to and was graduated from Harvard in1985 with a degree in both creative writing (poetry) and comparative literature. At Harvard he studied with Carlos Fuentes, Helen Vendler, and Seamus Heaney, who served as his one-on-one tutor. He was likewise awarded a full scholarship to the Sorbonne for a master’s degree in literature of the French Enlightenment, graduating in 1987. In 2019, aged 55, he enrolled in Emerson College’s MFA program in poetry, working with Pulitzer-Prize winner Megan Marshall, award-winning poet Daniel Tobin, and renown poet and memoirist Richard Hoffman. At 60, he began seeking professional publication, and since then his poems have appeared in The Iowa Review, on the websites of The Academy of American Poets and Winning Writers, as well as in the 2024 anthologies. HABITS: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly andOne Page Poetry, among other publications.
The Paddock Review 