The Indivisible Body of Reality

Teresa Mei Chuc (a.k.a. Tuệ Mỹ Ch) was born in S跬 G犥, Việt Nam shortly after the Việt Nam War and grew up in Pasadena, California. She was Altadena Poet Laureate (Editor-in-Chief) from 2018 to 2020 and has been a Pasadena Rose Poet since 2016. Teresa is the author of three books of poetry, Invisible Light (Many Voices Press, 2018), Keeper of the Winds (FootHills Publishing, 2014) and Red Thread (Fithian Press, 2012). Her poetry chapbook, Incidental Takes, was published by Hummingbird Press in 2023. She is co-editor of the anthology, Convergence: Poetry on Environmental Impacts of War (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2025). Teresa is a public high school English teacher in Los Angeles in her twenty-first year of teaching.

"Teresa Mei Chuc's work is sublime. Moving between nature's profundity to the power of the people, Teresa always has this languid way to encompass all and everything-the textured beauty and the chaos of colonization. Wielding words into our fractured existences, giving us meaning and an understanding of resistance, this poetry chapbook, The Indivisible Body of Reality, is an anthem for our times." -Fariha R鏙s璯, author of How To Cure A Ghost

"When a reader enters into a Teresa Mei Chuc poem, she or he finds not just the brilliance of intelligent and inspiring metaphors but also a window into a new world. That's a guarantee. I am reminded of Bertolt Brecht's phrase: "Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it." Just when I thought, as a veteran of the American war in Vietnam, that I had seen that war and its impact on people from all possible angles, Teresa enters the scene to re-shape my perspective. Not that she dwells on the details. No. She uses her amazing gifts to bring us into a new world. She opens herself up to all of existence, reminding us that our interdependence with all life forms defines who we are. For that we are eternally grateful." - Douglas Rawlings, author of In the Shadow of the Annamese Mountains and co-founder of Veterans for Peace