My aunt’s birthday was last weekend and a lavish party was held in her honor at the Radisson in northeast Grand Rapids. This is the poem I penned and read for the occasion:
Aunt Melita, you’ve been
our moment in an African homeland,
otherwise only fabled.
You’ve enabled your nieces to feel
beautiful and pixied, your nephews
to believe themselves warriors [...]
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
a birthday poem.
Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized on August 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
pith.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged acceptable post-breakup behavior, forcefields, ill-fated relationships, relationship stages of grief on July 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
it only hurts because of the intimate pods: the love-zippered pockets that held us together under the pelt of showerwater, when your skin was at once smooth and ridged and your hair smelled like loam in an herb garden; the hope-sealed silos where the drizzling grain laid tracks for our bodies’ ballad; the ark your [...]
top 5 things i’ve learned in my newly single state:
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged acceptable post-breakup behavior, high-school crushes, relationship stages of grief, single life on July 10, 2009 | 3 Comments »
1. don’t date dudes you had massive crushes on in high school.
2. salvage yourself.
3. avoid playing to others’ expectations.
4. relish, then release each stage of grief.
5. trust the future.
… brought to you by the letter s and the number 30.
Posted in Uncategorized on July 8, 2009 | 1 Comment »
i feel like there should be more to say than this, after having been out of school for 2.5 months now. but i really don’t have much to show for summer, save two novels read, a ton of relaxation, a renaissance of enthusiasm about the NE corridor, a twitter addiction, a break-up, and the completion [...]
Loss.
Posted in Uncategorized on April 27, 2009 | 6 Comments »
When I was three, I had an imaginary friend named Silas. He was tall. I can’t remember his ethnicity. He didn’t talk much. He wasn’t the kind of imaginary friend you pinned your indiscretions on. He was just your run-of-the-mill road dog, the very necessary playmate of an only child in a house full of [...]
Of Stares and Scowls and Tongue-Biting.
Posted in Uncategorized on April 2, 2009 | 1 Comment »
During my eighth grade school year, I fancied myself a militant. This was my third year as a student at Deer Park Middle School, which I (perhaps inaccurately) remember as about 40% Jewish, 50% Black, and 10% White and “Other” (shout-out to Jason Chang!).
These were my first years dealing with significant racial difference. Until sixth [...]
A Word Against Realism of Place.
Posted in Uncategorized on March 27, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I don’t drive.
This admission used to cause me a great deal of chagrin, especially during my early 20s, when everyone was zipping up and down freeways in their toy cars, visiting high school and college buddies at their varied new locations and seeing parts of the country to which I might never be privy. “Driving [...]
A Word Against Narrative Voices.
Posted in Uncategorized on February 13, 2009 | 4 Comments »
I try not to use this blog for “craft complaints,” but today I can’t help it.
First-person narrative is kicking my butt.
I hate it. I have hated it since undergrad when I wrote that bad novella and forced it upon three profs at Trinity, all of whom told me that each of my four first-person voices [...]
Welcome to 2009.
Posted in Uncategorized on January 5, 2009 | 6 Comments »
Hello, friends.
We’re already five days into the new year. Just two days ago, I was in Baltimore, happily spending the end of my winter break with my mother and grandmother. Now, it’s back to the frigidity and conservatism of Grand Rapids… not that there’s anything wrong with that. (:-/)
Classes began at Grand Valley today, though [...]
Update.
Posted in Uncategorized on September 6, 2008 | 1 Comment »
You know that memoir I was writing? Well, it was roundly rejected by my agent. So I’m not sure what I’m doing with it at this point, besides shelfing it. But if you read this blog, and you’re interested in reading more of excerpts from it, let me know. It would do my heart good [...]
