Mitchell Parfait

Mitchell Parfait grew up in Dulac, Louisiana — a small fishing community nestled in the Terrebonne Parish marshes, where the highway ends and the water begins. It is a place shaped by tides and seasons, by the labor of men who pull their living from the sea, and by a faith that runs as deep as the Gulf itself.

Mitchell has spent his life working on the water as a fisherman, seaman, and craftsman. He knows the weight of a net at first light, the smell of salt and diesel, the silence that settles over a man when he's alone on the water at dusk. It is from this life — not from a library or a classroom — that his poetry comes.

He began writing poems the way most people begin prayer: quietly, privately, not sure anyone was listening. Over the years, the verses accumulated — about love and loss, about God and doubt, about time passing and the things we hold onto. Dulac Poetry, his debut collection, gathers those years into 45 pages.

Notable poems include “Love Hurts,” a raw and honest meditation on the cost of caring deeply, and “Pray,” a spiritual reflection on surrender, faith, and the mercy of God. Together they represent the heart of the collection: the search for meaning in an ordinary, extraordinary life.

Mitchell still lives and works along the Louisiana coast. He writes because the water gave him stories, and stories deserve to be told.