If I'd Learned Nothing Else, It Was

I Wrote Before I Could Write. I Got My Hands On A Journal, Maybe A Hand-me-down; I Had Three Older Siblings. My First Entries Are In The Handwriting Of The Sister Closets In Age (5 Years My Senior). She Must Have Gotten Tired Of My Dictations Because She Gave Up And Then My Blocky Scrawl Shows Up. I Wrote Plays As A Kid Mostly.

Weakness, Like Not Being Able To Bury The Past. Weakness, Like Not Giving Up Hope When You Know You Should.

The Generation Of Women Who Came Before Us Did Much Of Our Shouting. They Laid The Groundwork And Now We Can Be Calm And Constant And Steady.

And I Know I'm Supposed To Feel Guilty For Wanting People To Buy My Books... And Books In General? Novels And Poetry, They Belong To The Realm Of Art. How Dirty Of Us To Try To Hawk Art! But, After A Decade Of Hand-wringing And Apologies, I Can't Quite Muster The Guilt Anymore.

I've Left The Church - For Many Reasons That I've Written About Publicly - But It's Still A Large Part Of My Identity, And I Still Have My Faith, If Not My Church.