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The Rest of Us with Dana Tenille Weekes
The Rest of Us podcast explores rest as self-liberation for advocates and professionals who are losing themselves to the demands of work, loved ones, friends, strangers, and this dizzying world. The Rest of Us cultivates a community through honest reflections, conversations, and laughter for people willing to embrace rest differently.
The Rest of Us with Dana Tenille Weekes
Poetic Interlude - Mai-Linh Hong reading "Harvest Moon with Wildfire"
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How do you deeply care for the land to ground your living self within the collective of all living things? In this Poetic Interlude, Mai-Linh Hong shares her poem "Harvest Moon with Wildfire" (from her forthcoming debut collection, Continental Drift).
Creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truths. We in The Rest of Us community view this as a deep connection to one’s own agency — our definition of rest.
Settle into the work of Mai-Linh Hong and even explore your own creativity, which we define as liberatory rest.
ABOUT MAI-LINH HONG
MAI-LINH HONG is a Vietnamese American refugee poet and literary scholar. Her debut collection, Continental Drift, won the Trio Award and will be published by Trio House Press in 2026. Poems appear or are forthcoming in Ploughshares, Copper Nickel, ANMLY, Wildness, Waxwing, and elsewhere, and her writing has been supported by Voices of Our Nation, Tin House, and the Vermont Studio Center.
She is coauthor and coeditor of The Auntie Sewing Squad Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice (U. of California Press, 2021). Raised in Virginia, she now lives in California’s Central Valley and teaches literature at U. of California-Merced.
Pre-order Mai-Linh's debut poetry collection, Continental Drift (TRIO HOUSE PRESS, July 2026).
Visit Mai-Linh at mai-linhhong.com.
Say “hello” to Mai-Linh on Instagram @continentaldrift_poems.
You can also visit therestofuspodcast.com to read Mai-Linh's poem and reflection prompt, along with other featured poets in the Poetic Interlude community.
Note: "Harvest Moon with Wildfire" was first published in Waxwing Issue 34, Fall 2025.
PODCAST TEAM
Host, Dana Tenille Weekes
Producer, Annabelle Oh
Editor, Sagheer Muhammad
Content Manager, Annabelle Oh
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Until next time, rest, my friends.
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Welcome to the Poetic Interlude as part of the Rest of Us podcast. Each poetic interlude holds space to remind us that creative expression is a portal to rest as liberation. Creatives, including poets, show us how to embrace our humanity and act on our truth, not fear, in this present moment, which we in the Rest of Us community view as a deep connection to one's agency. Our definition of rest. Let's settle in. Maylin Hong is a Vietnamese-American refugee poet and literary scholar. Her debut collection, which I'm so excited about, Continental Drift, won the Trio Award and will be published by Trio House Press in July 2026. Poems appear or are forthcoming in Plowshares, Copper Nickel, Omni, Wildness, Waxling, and Elsewhere. She is co-author and co-editor of The Auntie Sewing Squad, Guide to Mask Making, Radical Care, and Racial Justice by University of California Press in 2021. Raised in Virginia, she now lives in California's Central Valley and teaches literature at UC Merced. Learn more about Maylin at mailinhong.com. That is M as in Mary A IFEN L I N as in Nancy H H O N S N Nancy G dot com and say hello to her on Instagram at continentaldrift underscore poems with an S. You can also visit the Restofus Podcast.com to read Maylin's poem and reflection prompt along with other poets in the poetic interlude community. Let's settle in.
SPEAKER_01My name is Maylin Hong, and I will read my poem Harvest Moon with Wildfire. Harvest Moon with Wildfire. We have slept through most of the Anthropocene, waking to sirens. Now look at the smoky season seething with wild eye. Autumn tells the orange moon to come back sober. Goldfinch glares from his awesome swing. His wing is singed. The sky rages between silences. We raided children. When I was little, we made lanterns carried on a stick. I trusted flame to lodge within its paper cage. I think of fire differently these days. My son, my moon, will one day be his own protector. I have learned to live without another's apology. I will learn to mother with the earth ablaze. As you receive this poem, settle into this reflection. You can think in silence, free write, draw, or even craft a poem. I wrote this poem in the wake of an especially dramatic wildfire season in California where I now live. I was thinking about the dysfunction in America's relationship to the environment and what this means for my son, whose generation is growing up with the consequences. Indigenous ways of managing land and fire have been undermined by settler colonialism to everyone's detriment. But there is ancestral wisdom and indigenous science that we can choose to honor for our collective survival. What ancestral wisdom do you embrace? How do you deeply care for the land, not property, to ground your living self within the collective of all living things?
SPEAKER_00Thank you for listening to this poetic interlude. Remember, we are all creatives, whether we believe it or not. And creativity itself is a source for what we in the Rest of Us community call liberatory rest. Want to listen to more poetic interludes? Visit therestofuspodcast.com or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Until next time, rest, my friends.