My Poetry Corner June 2025 features the poem “Wildebeests Migrate Across the Serengeti / Gnus Migram Através do Serengeti” from the poetry collection The Movement of Birds / O Movimento dos Pássaros (2020) by Micheliny Verunschk, an award-winning Brazilian poet, romance novelist, literary critic, and historian. All the excerpts cited in this article are from this collection.

Verunschk was born in Recife, capital of the Northeast State of Pernambuco, in 1972 during the period of Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985). Her father was in the military; her mother was a teacher. She holds a master’s degree in Literature and Literary Criticism, as well as a doctorate in Communication and Semiotics from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC). She has lived in São Paulo since 2004.

The young Micheliny spent most of her childhood in Arcoverde, a violent city in the semi-arid interior of Pernambuco. Exposed to violence at an early age, she was curious about what her father was doing in the military. She also lived in Tupanatinga, yet another violent city in the interior. It’s no surprise then, with her father’s encouragement, that she found release in writing poetry and stories as early as nine years old.