Poetry highlights in honor of National Poetry Month!
Poet of the Day: H. Melt
H. Melt is a poet, artist, and educator whose work celebrates trans people, history, and culture. They are the author of On My Way to Liberation ,  The Plural , The Blurring , and editor of the anthology Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation . H. Melt has exhibited artwork at the Leather Archives and Museum, the Overlook, and Woman Made Gallery. They've taught at 826Chi, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and Young Chicago Authors. H. Melt was a fellow with the Poetry Foundation's Emerging Poets Incubator and artist in residence at the Newberry Library, researching the Chicago Protest Collection. They've been named to Newcity's Lit 50 list and Windy City Times's 30 Under 30. Lambda Literary awarded them the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers. H. Melt lives in Chicago.
This poet belongs in our classrooms because . . .
H. Melt belongs in the classroom because all students deserve to see themselves in the literature they read in class. The back cover of On My Way to Liberation affirms that “trans people are everywhere, though often erased. Writing towards a trans future, H. Melt envisions a world where trans people are respected, loved and celebrated every day.”

Take a moment to think about the texts you teach—how many of them are by LBGTQ+ (and specifically trans) writers? As teachers, we need to ask ourselves: are we part of the erasure of trans voices, or are we allies? In an interview with PBS NewsHour , Melt explains that their work “is concerned with building” a world “where [trans people] can be themselves.” Melt’s work challenges “the binaries that govern the ways many people think of gender.” Their poems sustain that “you don’t have to fit in these pre-existing definitions or ways of being. . . . And this whole idea is applicable to everyone’s life, regardless of whether or not they’re trans.”
A Poem by H. Melt
Someone Else Entirely

When my aunt
whispered in my ear
we love you very much
I wish she would’ve screamed
When my other aunt sent me
the collected poems of langston hughes
john waters and nikki giovanni
I knew she meant be as queer
as you want to be
When my other aunt
called me and my girl ladies
ignored my new name and
name dropping of laverne
the cards stopped coming
When my cister has her devil children
will I be allowed to speak with them
will I be an aunt, an uncle or
someone else entirely.

Melt, H. “Someone Else Entirely.” The Offing. 15 July 2015,
theoffingmag.com/micro/someone-else-entirely/.
Classroom Connections
Discussion Questions for “Someone Else Entirely”

  • Who are the characters in this poem and how does the speaker feel about each one?
  • Explain the function of comparison in this poem.
  • Consider the word cister in the last stanza. How does this help to develop tone?
  • Why do you think Melt ends with a period instead of a question mark?
  • What is the function of the allusions?
  • How does the arrangement of lines and stanzas contribute to the development and relationship of ideas in this poem?

In “Someone Else Entirely” the speaker grapples with their various family members’ acceptance or erasure of their identity. This poem will speak to students on personal level in regard to the need to feel accepted as themselves, and the effects of what happens when that is denied. The importance of names is also an important aspect to this poem. Find a supplemental lesson on name poems here . 

More poems by H. Melt

City of Trans Liberation in Lamba Literary
“ Every Day is Trans Day ” in Split This Rock
“ Intensive Care ” in Tinderbox
“ Ode to Jennivee’s Bakery in Shallow Ends
Melissa Alter Smith teaches high school in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is 2017 District Teacher of the Year, an AP Reader, an NCETA Executive Board member, and a National Board Certified Teacher. She has presented at AWP, NCTIES, WVELA, NCETA, WLU Summer Institute, NCTE, and the AP Annual Conference, and is co-author of # TeachLivingPoets , published by NCTE (forthcoming Nov. 2020). Melissa is also a coauthor of the Instructor’s Manual and AP Correlation Guide for the 13th high school edition of  The Norton Introduction to Literature. She is a contributing author for aplithelp.com, the creator of the #TeachLivingPoets hashtag, and the manager and editor of teachlivingpoets.com. She was the keynote speaker at the NCETA 2019 spring symposium, featured in the Spring 2019 issue of NEATE News, featured on LitHub , and was a 2018 National Poetry Month guest on Education Talk Radio. Her work is focused on complicating the canon, supporting teachers, and empowering students through poetry. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram @MelAlterSmith .