Audience participation
I received another contribution to the Where We’re From page today (from Julie, who also has a blog). Newer readers may not realize that I welcome—nay, desire—contributions to that page. You may also be unaware that I enjoy hearing individual love stories, stories of how a couple met, fell in love, and married. Love stories are as varied as the individuals involved, and they are always compelling. So if you type out your personal love story and mail it to me (happy at atimelikethis dot net), I’ll publish it here as an encouragement to others as well as myself.
July 29th, 2005 at 10:16 am
These poems make me so nostalgic. Seriously, there is something so magical about remembering the sights, sounds and smells of childhood. And I think I am even more touched by them as I think about my children and the memories we are making with them. What will their “Where I’m from” poems say?
I started writing a “Where I’m from poem” for my son. It starts with him being from God, then some lines about who I am and how he is from me and my husband. Then I wrote about some of the things that have defined his life so far. Here is an excerpt with some info deleted that would give away where we are living:
You are from mosquito nets and colic, from a thousand suggestions
Of how to care for you, some of which worked.
You are loved by aunties and uncles, by all the brown strangers who
Can’t help but exclaim over you in passing.
You are from airplanes and airports,
From a portable crib, from three continents
in your first year of life.
Anyway, just thought I would share about how I took the poem a step further. Maybe I will keep adding to my son’s poem until he is old enough to write it himself.