Narco Farm

About Maceo J. Whitaker

Maceo J. Whitaker lives in Beacon, NY. His poems have appeared in journals such as Beloit Poetry Journal, Boulevard, Fugue, Hotel Amerika, Natural Bridge, North American Review, [PANK], The Pinch, Poetry, Rattle, Rhino, and Tricycle (Trike Daily).

Praise for Narco Farm

Maceo J. Whitaker writes staccato-rhythm poems about addiction, homelessness, violence, poverty, and love. He is a gritty, bluesy descendant of Frank O’Hara—though Whitaker breaks out and visits boroughs other than Manhattan. A poet of witness, his characters do what they must to get by. A Plath-loving graduate of Smith College spends her days as “a vegan in a hot dog suit” swaddled in “the moldy funk of the fake/frank (a dank blanket).” Whitaker is a maestro at wedding image and sound, pathos and humor. Narco Farm speaks of a troubled and troubling America. His poems are necessary, compassionate, knowing that we need “(t)o begin once again to be human.”
—Denise Duhamel, author of Scald

Maceo J. Whitaker’s poems brim with kinetic wit and lots of heart. In Narco Farm, Wordsworth’s welcomed to Poughkeepsie, where he is urged to “Ignore the totality of immortality” and “Drink up this anti-pastoral,” Abe Lincoln gets a double-feature—“So much death in our historical narrative,” and DJs and MCs overrun the “Robert Frost Kickball Club.” These poems are combination laugh-box and gut-punch, dopamine delivery systems full of emotional checks and balances, and Whitaker’s debut collection bears out the promise of one of the country’s finest new voices.
John Hennessy, author of Coney Island Pilgrims