In my last post, I called poets my mishpacha, my family. In less than a week, I've added a new stop to my trip (Salt Lake City, Utah), found places to stay in Denver/Boulder and Atlanta, shared heartbreak and history with new friends and renewed friendships that began five months ago in Detroit, or a year ago in Austin.
Poetry and poets have brought me to yet another place I'd have never traveled to otherwise, and given me the security I need to be traveling for so long.
And here I am in Minneapolis, with my other mishpacha. The ones I'm connected to by blood and legalities. The other group of people in my life that have offered me everything I could possibly want with hardly a request to motivate them. I love this family, and, like the poets, I only get to see them once a year.
So why do I feel kind of lonely right now?
B&T are about halfway between my and my parents' ages, and have two small kids. The kids don't know me well enough to really want to play with me yet - the little one shies away when i bend down to talk to him, and the big one just gets quiet and big-eyed. B&T won't let me do dishes. Yet, they're parents of young kids, so we don't really get to talk without interruption. I feel like I'm just creating more work for them, when I wish I could just jump into their rhythm and do dishes, help the kids with their baths, etc. And yet, B&T are treating me like more of a grown-up than anyone else in my family and giving me plenty of space and resources. And I appreciate that, too.
Not for the first time, I wish I wasn't traveling alone.
In other news, I sold two books at Nationals, and gave a whole bunch away. This makes me happy.
(M&P, you haven't seen this book. I didn't want to show it to you because I thought some of the poems in it would upset you, which is kind of dumb, seeing as you have yet to faint away in despair at any of my work. Ask Mom to show it to you, if you like.)
In other other news, I have a professional website now. Check it out! All the amazing photography is courtesy of my sister, who will doubtlessly one day be one of the world's most elite paparazzi.
3 comments:
Volunteer to bead with N - she'll warm right up to you (and you'll become her new favorite cousin to boot.) A will warm up to you soon enough. I'm sending you a BIG hug from the east coast!
Hey Beautiful - thanks for the tips! I will certainly employ them tomorrow and Wednesday.
Also, did I ever tell you why I always address you as Beautiful? It's because of an Andrea Gibson poem that contains the line "Tell me we'll be naming our children Beautiful, and nothing else."
You are not my children, but boy do I love that line. So, there.
I guess part of the challenge of traveling they way you are (guesting all the way) is learning how to quickly adapt to each setting (family, friends, poets, etc) and find your place in it. You should get better at it as you go...
How did the event go tonight?
love,
yvlm
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