Luther Kissam V
Poet | Writer | Mental Health Advocate
Poet | Writer | Mental Health Advocate
Whether “manic sailing with planets” or using “the rust of mars” to describe anger, emerging poet Luther Kissam V draws on the celestial and terrestrial to explore mental health. These elements push and pull Kissam’s poems through chaos and calm, through meditations and medications, and ultimately, to a maintained balance. For Kissam, bipolar is a gift from the moon, a gravitational force that fuels exploration of space: mental, physical and spiritual. The selected poems in Superpowers are deeply personal, revealing the tumult and tranquility teetering in us all, especially in those whose experience of beauty, joy, and pain is physical, sometimes tragic, and often supernatural. His confessions of failure, triumph, and resiliency will resonate with those affected by, diagnosed with, or curious about bipolar disorder.
Poet | Writer | Mental Health Advocate
Luther Kissam V is a poet, writer, and mental health advocate from Charlotte, NC. His poems have appeared in the Emerson Review and Lived-In. His work comes from a place of inquiry and wrestles with impossible to answer questions. He frequently speaks in support of mental health causes to advocate for suicide prevention efforts, access to treatment, and breaking down the stigma surrounding mental illness. Along with his creative work and advocacy, he is the writer in residence of the SY Acadia where he is producing a coffee table book about marine conservation in the Eastern Tropical Pacific.
photo courtesy of Richard Israel