Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Where I'm From

A mad/lib type meme from this template after reading Julie Persons' poem first.

Tag, you're it.

Where I'm From

I am from short spiral notebooks with thick green covers in a Harvard Square bookstore, from Clairol Herbal Essence shampoo and Bonne Bell watermelon lip smacker.

I am from the old brownstones of a Back Bay neighborhood where moms brought out lemonade while we all played four-square on the side walk, surrounded, innocent. The ancient gargoyles carved into our apartment buildings were deliciously alive.

I am from Avocado trees grown inside from pits, the bubbling creek.

I am from passionate debates over dinner, from fall down funny, from Jill who came from Simone who came from Georgiana.

I am from the need to say it all and the too big emotions.

From ‘To Thine Own Self Be True” and ”Give me the answer for a Mars bar”.

I am from agnostics who then found God outside of church and a southern Baptist who mellowed after years of bible ranting.

I'm from Russia, France (by way of Canada), the deep South and New York City (though mostly I’m New England), lobster on a Boston roof and sweet tea brewed every day.

I am from the typewriter that my mother got a deal on through her mother’s gallery, for her writer boyfriend, a typewriter that got her kicked out of her mother’s gallery in NYC and into a new life in Boston; the vintage La Salle car that my father gave as a tip to a valet; and the red-headed inventor who was mysteriously murdered at a stop light when his daughter, my mother, was thirteen.

I am from the black boxes on the bottom shelf in our new art room that contain many of the pictures and scraps of my mother. This year I will bring them into the light and share them with her grandkids so that they can know her.

9 comments:

helenw said...

Wow.


And I just made a wall of photos of my Dad's family - I never knew most of them but they are starting to become more familiar.

piscesgrrl said...

I LOVE THIS! I did this with my women's circle. We each decorated our poems and made copies and then we bound them all into a book. It is SO special. I loved reading yours!!

piscesgrrl said...

I had to reread yours again. It gives me shivers! What a treasure this poem is.

Madeline Rains said...

I'd love to read both of yours. It was really powerful to do it, eh? I was swept away back to the start. sigh. It is good to remember where we come from.

mrs boo radley said...

This is fabulous!

Bhu said...

love this! give you a mars bar! ha! i know that one... such a wonderful picture of you. you are a great writer. i feel like i know you better after reading this.

Gerky said...

Oh, I love this. Gonna do this with the picklets as a poetry project. :-)

Cap'n Franko said...

Very nice. I did this, too. Seems like it's going around the unschooling universe now.

Persephone said...

This was great!! Chop and i just read it together, really beautiful. I will have to wait sometime before I try to write such a poem, I think I would accidently steal your style in trying to commensurate your poems beauty.

I can't believe the snow!! I love that Jesse said it was better than he could have dreamed, and he is such a dreamer