Richard Blanco
“An engineer, poet, Cuban American… his poetry bridges cultures and languages – a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future – reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still becoming.”
– President Joe Biden, conferring the National Humanities Medal on Richard Blanco
Homeland Of My Body: New & Selected Poems
Beacon Press, Release date: October 24, 2023.
A rich, accomplished, intensely intimate collection with two full sections of new poems bookending Blanco’s selections from his five previous volumes.
In this collection of over 100 poems, Richard Blanco has carefully selected poems from his previous books that represent his evolution as a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations. Pausing at this pivotal moment in mid-career, Blanco reexamines his life-long quest to find his proverbial home and all that it encompasses: love, family, identity and ultimately art itself. In the closing section of the volume, he has come to understand and internalize the idea that “home” is not one place, not one thing, and lives both inside him and inside his art.
Upcoming Events
June 23 - June 27, 2025
The Photographic Poem. Maine Media Workshops. Boothbay Rockport, ME
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August 3, 2025
WE (too) THE PEOPLE Reading Series. The Longfellow House. Cambridge, M.A.
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September 19, 2025
A Celebration of American Masters & Geniuses. San Diego, C.A
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September 25, 2025
Hudson Valley Writers Center 2025 Annual Fall Gala.
Sleepy Hollow. NY.
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Keep in Touch
Sure, social media is great, but staying in touch directly is more meaningful, intimate, and informative. Sign up for my newsletter and I’ll occasionally share not only news, but also favorite poems from masterful poets, resources for educators, poems for various occasions, and much more to keep you connected to poetry and inspired.
Latest News
“Uncertain – Sea Principle” A Poem for UNESCO’s Year of the Quantum Poetry Contest.
Grateful to share my poem, “Uncertain – Sea Principle” – a contrapuntal ode inspired by Werner Heisenberg—with UNESCO’s Quantum Year 2025 and the Brilliant (Quantum) Poetry Contest, open through June 30, 2025. This contest celebrates both the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and the centenary of quantum mechanics.
As an engineer-poet, I’ve always felt that quantum uncertainty echoes the human condition—our lives, like particles, pulse between knowing and becoming.
This contest invites poets and thinkers alike to give voice to the mysteries of quantum science through verse. Winners and runners-up will receive cash prizes, but more than that, the chance to explore science not as formula, but as a feeling.
Details: https://www.thebrilliantpoetry.com/
In Conversation with Kim Dower: Poetry as a Bridge to Self and Others
During this year’s National Poetry Month, I had the pleasure of joining my dear friend and fellow poet Kim Dower for a deeply personal and illuminating conversation as part of the WeHo Reads series, presented by the City of West Hollywood.
Together, we explored the ways poetry helps us navigate our identities—how it invites us to listen more deeply to ourselves and one another. We spoke about belonging, memory, and the quiet yet powerful work of language in transforming our experiences into something we can share. Kim’s voice and vision always remind me of the emotional honesty that poetry demands—and the connection it makes possible.
It’s moments like these that affirm why I write: to reach across the spaces between us, to create meaning, and to build community through art.
Learn more about Kim Dower’s poetry, life, and works HERE.
A Choral Composition by Oliver Caplan of “Cloud Anthem” by Richard Blanco
A belated note of gratitude to composer Oliver Caplan for his choral composition of my poem “CLOUD ANTHEM,” and to the New Hampshire Master Chorale with Juventas New Music Ensemble for their dulcet tones. This performance, recorded live on October 29th, 2022, at the Granoff Music Center in Medford, MA, is a moment to pause, breathe, and remember that we are always connected; we “hold light in our lucid bodies like blood…” read more…
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