I am the hero withten thousandenemies—each one offerstheir deathto make me greatand braveand the subject of songsfor future generations—the fire lights uptheir faces and their eyesglow withtomorrow’s dawnand they are allthe same—allunkempt and wildand unmistakably me
[I am the hero with]
Adam Hughes
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“[I am the hero with]” from PLUCK: by Adam Hughes.
Published by BOA Editions on September 30, 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by Adam Hughes.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Adam Hughes is a poet, writer, teacher, and performer living in Bedford, Virginia. Originally from central Ohio, he received an MFA in Creative Writing from Randolph College. Pluck (BOA Editions, 2025) is his fifth full-length poetry collection. In addition to his poetry, he is also the author of This Is Rugby, a non-fiction book about American rugby culture. Adam has been a pastor, a hospice grief coordinator, a college professor, a rugby player, an actor, a director, and is currently a high school English teacher. Most importantly, he is a husband and a father.
A former pastor reckons with fallout when a lifetime of religious practice intersects with a modern life that’s messier than doctrine allows. What happens when old certainties are no longer certain? What is left when we take off the old clothes that used to keep us warm, but no longer fit?
Pluck is a book-length meditation on what wrestling with faith—or its inverse—looks like.
In his 5th poetry collection, Adam Hughes uses a conversational approach to share his own all-too-human personal experiences while pulling back layers of his life, loves, and his relationship to the religion that shaped him. “I want to be known perfectly and loved anyway,” is the cry of the author, as is the acceptance of doubt, disbelief, and drift.
A pursuit of authenticity and a coming to terms with doubt, this book is for all of those who are fellow G(g)od wrestlers, doubters, the restless and dissatisfied, for those who are tired of old certainties and structures that have long since broken down around them.
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