Dominique Ahkong
LightNews LightNews
banner
domkeykong.bsky.social
Dominique Ahkong
@domkeykong.bsky.social
310 followers 340 following 11 posts
AZ-based slow poet. Co-edits @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
dominiqueahkong.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
johnnycordova.bsky.social
Honored to have two poems chosen by @bunkong.bsky.social for Cultural Daily.

“The Young Man on the Train” was written during a 26-day pilgrimage through India in 2014.

“The Mountain and the Monk” is a persona poem.

www.culturaldaily.com/johnny-cordo...
Johnny Cordova: Two Poems - Cultural Daily
Two poems by Johnny Cordova: "This mountain has gotten inside me. / I hear it rumbling through my hollow bones. / It rises in me like a dark sun..."
www.culturaldaily.com
July 20, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Take a peek at our summer issue! Read "Nocturne" by Christian J. Collier, a poem selected by the editors as the Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize.

shopoetryjournal.com/christian-j-...
from "Nocturne" I believed I could be more than man &, for two hours, became / the darkest bird in Hamilton County—barely eighteen, // midnight blue, resting my warm, bare feet on sheets ofgale of gale / as fog-sopped night made kindred of me. CHRISTIAN J. COLLIER Winner of the Shō Poetry Prize
June 29, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shovda.bsky.social
I forgot to post the poems because I've been streaming for 17 days straight lol.
June 30, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
New poem online! “Symptoms of Ghosts” by Aldo Amparán (@skygoneout.bsky.social) is forthcoming in our summer issue, Shō No. 7, and was selected by the editors as the runner-up for the Shō Poetry Prize.

Read the poem (with audio by the poet) here: shopoetryjournal.com/aldo-amparan/
Light beige background. Sliver of a dark night image at the top, a ghostly night forest scene: a girl in a long white dress and a bird head mask sits on a bough. Beige text reads: Read a Poem Summer 2025. Main text reads: "from 'Symptoms of Ghosts' I used to write / my colors in past // tense: I was redded. / I was blued. I was / violented. Often // misspelled / certain truths. – Aldo Amparán, Shō Poetry Prize Runner-Up." Small circle-cut photo of a person with short, reddish-brown hair & a neatly trimmed goatee wears a black beret & a black sweater, standing among leafless branches. A few years ago, I stumbled upon an article in LGBTQ Nation titled “85% of gay people are possessed by ghosts according to ‘spiritual research.’” As a queer person & avid consumer of all things strange & spooky, I was amused by the claim, but it lingered with me in a more introspective way. It reminded me of all the damaging refrains used to explain someone’s queerness, & how some of them were true for me: experiencing childhood trauma, growing up without a father. READ MORE: tinyurl.com/symptomsofghosts
June 27, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
New poem online! “Doubt” by Nina C. Peláez (@ninacpelaez.bsky.social) is forthcoming in our summer issue, Shō No. 7, and was selected by the editors as the runner-up for the Sita Martin Prize.

Read the poem (with audio by the poet) here:
shopoetryjournal.com/doubt-nina-c...
Light beige background. Sliver of a dark night image at the top, a ghostly night forest scene: a girl in a long white dress and a bird head mask sits on a bough. Beige text reads: Read a Poem Summer 2025. Main text reads: "from ‘Doubt' At the cattle farm, I fell in love with a boy / who thought he was a god. I too, believed / this sometimes. – Nina C. Peláez, Sita Martin Prize Runner-Up." Small circle-cut black and white photograph of a woman with short hair wearing a dress. I started working on this piece over 15 years ago, while staying at a friend's family farm one summer, and it has moved through many, many iterations. It was first fragments, then a series of short poems, and at one point, a short story that I abandoned when a teacher's response was "the writing is beautiful, but stories are about people in trouble." Yet, something kept pulling me back to these memories time and again. It took me this long to come to see what I was really writing about, to see the shadows that had been sitting in the periphery of that landscape all along.
June 27, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
Coming soon: Shō No. 7 | Summer 2025 ✨
Cover art: “Interim” by Tanya Rastogi (@tanyarastogiart).

Our summer issue features 67 poems by 48 poets, whose names are listed below.

Preorder Shō No. 7 at: tinyurl.com/shono7

Issues will ship in July.
Orange-brown background. Cover image: in a ghostly night forest scene, a full moon and a girl in a long white dress and a bird head mask sitting on a bough. Yellow text reads: Sunmer 2025 Cover art: “Interim” by Tanya Rastogi Contributors Lavender background. Text reads: Preorder here: tinyurl.com/shono7
June 13, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
fklein907.bsky.social
Front page, baby!
The front page of a newspaper with a picture of Frances. The text says “another life, Ketchikan’s Frances Klein releases book of poetry An interior page of a newspaper with a picture of Frances titled Frances Klein releases poetry book another life Another interior page of a newspaper with a continuation of the story
January 25, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
aribcofer.com
new poem in @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social 💕
January 12, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
aribcofer.com
also new in Shō Poetry Journal —
January 12, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
upfromsumdirt.bsky.social
k. iver
SLEEPING BEAUTY

www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/162612...
Sleeping Beauty
A ballet mistress says relevé always as command: lift onto the toe using only the heel. You enter the stage as Lilac Fairy & fairies make critical things happen, though underneath your tulle brushing ...
www.poetryfoundation.org
December 29, 2024 at 12:12 AM
domkeykong.bsky.social
Happy and honored to receive my first Pushcart Prize nomination! Thank you, @cincinnatireview.bsky.social
cincinnatireview.bsky.social The Cincinnati Review @cincinnatireview.bsky.social · Nov 26
We're delighted to announce our nominees for The Pushcart Prize and Best Spiritual Literature 2024! Congratulations to all of these extraordinary writers whose work appears in issues 21.1 and 21.2 (forthcoming)!
A trophy with sparkly gold stars spilling out of it. Text reads, "Announcing our 2024 Award Nominees." Pushcart Prize nominees: Christine Hale, "His Body," 21.1; Paula Closson-Buck, "The Girl who Loved Boyan Slat," 21.2; Karolina Letunova, "Turn Your Back to the Forest," 21.2; Mandy-Suzanne Wong, "Notes from Underwater," 21.1; Dominique Ahkong, "Reunion Dinner," 21.2; Alafia Nicole Sessions, "Faith," 21.1. Best Spiritual Literature nominations: John Fulton, "Emily Leaves Switzerland" (21.2); James Davis May, "Irritable Reaching Syndrome" (21.1); Robert Thomas, "Sonnets with Riff and Hook" (21.2); Dashaun Washington, "Matrilineage" (21.2).
November 27, 2024 at 2:27 AM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
stonecirclereview.bsky.social
One of the many nasty things Evil Melon did to the old place was make Tweetdeck a premium feature. Fortunately, Bluesky has a third-party app, @deck.blue, that duplicates Tweetdeck perfectly. It really helps me keep on top of my SCR and personal account at the same time. deck.blue
deck.blue
Get the most out of Bluesky with a multi-column layout
deck.blue
November 13, 2024 at 11:04 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
hanvanderhart.bsky.social
I’ve actually written what I hope is a useful post—take what is helpful to you in your creative submission practice, leave what is not 💜
On Rejection and Dwelling in Possibility
Iris Murdoch—you know I love her—said that a bad review was about as interesting as whether it is raining in Patagonia. I tend to think about rejections this way.
open.substack.com
November 12, 2024 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
dseuss.bsky.social
This is an essay on my poem "Ballad," Keats's notion of Negative Capability, and Lorca's Duende, with a prompt and a link to the original poem. I'm happy to share it with you.
I Know You Know: Diane Seuss On “Ballad,” Negative Capability, and the Duende
Christ was laid out in a glass coffin, like Snow White. I visited and re-visited him. He looked so much like my father on his deathbed.
poems.com
November 11, 2024 at 3:20 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
christinadaub.bsky.social
Loving this issue (no. 4) of @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social and happy to have a poem alongside so many fine ones! With thanks to @johnnycordova.bsky.social & @domkeykong.bsky.social #poetry
Cardinal, a poem by Christina Daub. Rain, birds, sacred, Love. Detail of cover of Shō Poetry Journal issue 4. A woman in a deer mask with antlers.
February 3, 2024 at 6:47 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
pittella.bsky.social
Reading issue 4 of @shopoetryjournal.bsky.social, loving poem after poem—& thrilled to sing among them!

Here's "In case they run your license plate," featuring teeth, dogs, & bordercrossings.

Much luv to @johnnycordova.bsky.social & @domkeykong.bsky.social for welcoming my voice into the fold 💙
CARLOS A. PITTELLA In case they run your license plate Once I broke my front tooth out of a poem & still have the chip to show—not a great poem but it tasted like bone it was real I remember the pain & the scar-tissue of writing it that became my face. There goes the poet with the broken tooth they say while I laugh poking my smile through the jagged window whistling a beat. I tell this as a descendant of biting accumulators who turned on his kin & is now ostracized for lightness sudden ballerino reminding all must pass. I dance the crosswalk most days feeling the traffic police looking for my plate before they realize these are thighs occupying jeans the same I grew & grew against the fabric of walking till the border between Macedonia & Greece —a semi another semi myself. The immigration officer smiled when smoke exhausted a backpacker taking the last steps to the service window: he stamped my passport but neglected to mention the dogs the army dogs [...] Hand holding issue no. 4 of Shō Poetry Journal against gardenia leaves. The cover artwork, titled "Girl with Deer Mask," is by Harim Choi and features a standing child with a deer mask beside a sculpted gray head of a girl, both projecting their shadows against a high desert landscape.
February 26, 2024 at 4:00 PM
domkeykong.bsky.social
A blackout poem created from a rejection slip reads: Dear Dominique My Ex- Lover on the Métro read your work, but this was not right think of us
November 5, 2023 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
adamcsharp.bsky.social
How to say “the truth has finally been revealed” in various languages:
 
5. The cat is out of the bag (English)
4. The bunny is out of the hat (Czech)
3. The pigeon falls out of your mouth (Romanian)
2. The turtle’s feet have appeared (Taiwanese)
1. Now the monkey comes out of the sleeve (Dutch)
October 2, 2023 at 12:35 PM
Reposted by Dominique Ahkong
shopoetryjournal.bsky.social
If you’re at the Brooklyn Book Festival tomorrow, look for Shō in the Literary Marketplace! The good folks at CLMP (Tables 316/317) will be giving away free copies of our revival issue, along with other goodies from other publishers founded/led by or championing writing by PoC ♥️ Go early!
September 30, 2023 at 4:37 PM
domkeykong.bsky.social
Always happy to receive poems that mention durian

(Though not so keen on durian downers)
September 29, 2023 at 8:43 PM
domkeykong.bsky.social
Holy carp holy carp—two of my poems were just accepted at a dream journal and it makes me want to accept poems for
@shopoetryjournal.bsky.social!
September 5, 2023 at 6:02 PM
domkeykong.bsky.social
Hello, I grew up in the penpal era.
August 27, 2023 at 5:42 PM