Today I fly to Belgium. After a new Belgian law passed last month, my visa application was returned in order for me to apply for residency in person at the local level. Please keep your fingers crossed!
My column “Breaking the Silence” returns in August, when I expect to be recovered from jetlag. For the moment, here is an excerpt from my journal entry on 29 June 2008. The topic is graduation:
Today I enjoyed a circle of women writers. This circle gets stronger after several months of gathering, and I thank each person for sharing creativity, honesty, and good old fashioned word craft.
Each meeting begins with a writing prompt. This week we selected individual starters based on our birth date. Mine read These are the things women know about love,which is the title of this poem: Read the rest of this entry »
I composed this poem in 2006 in memory of my friend Samantha, who died in 2002. To learn more about Sam’s story, read the last “Breaking the Silence” column titled “Lessons for the Wider World” (2 June 2008).
Journal Excerpt - May 11, 2008. Through the bedroom window I see northeast wind 
blow fuchsia petals from a tree. Spring is closing; summer is nearing. It was April 2002 when Sam and I came into contact again; she recently had moved into her mom’s house. We met at her crossroads, apparently to grant me access again to her life. I believe now it is for the purpose of sharing her story, though I’m not sure exactly how.
Where do you start sharing a story about someone who died? Do you start with their life or their death?
Samantha Kirsten Straight, born 9 May 1974, grew up to be a high-school teacher but was born a poet. Sam graced my life in two parts: the one when we knew each other for several years, and the second six months before she died. Despite being one year older than me, Sam always felt like a younger sister. The world lost Sam to suicide, and this “Breaking the Silence” column is about striving for wholeness/ balance/ wellbeing by learning from anyone “deemed” ill.
Photo: Samantha. Credit: family.
This poem emerged late last summer while I was in Belgium. The poem served as a mantra through a challenging time. Being apart from loved ones, an ocean between us, clearly teaches the finiteness of our control. The poem continues teaching me how to focus on my own choices and attitudes. Read the rest of this entry »
Phil McGraw, you must apologize! The travesty aired on 29 April titled “Daddy Drama” sanctioned homophobia/heterosexism, misogyny/sexism, and ignorance about the lives of transgender persons. Doc, you must attempt to repair this irresponsibly wrought damage.
“Daddy Drama” appalled me as someone who respects the health and wealth of human sexuality and gender. It is a respect that overcomes “training” by evangelical, White-middle-class, Midwest churches, which tied “k/nots” around my body, mind, and soul. Read the rest of this entry »
I knew which topic to debut on “Breaking the Silence” after attending Wordcraft Circle’s conference Returning the Gift (RtG). The American Indian Studies Program of Michigan State University hosted RtG 2008.
My clarity follows five years of grappling what being mixed race means in a light-skinned body raised in a White world. In this piece, I am “outing” the shame I have heaped upon myself for identifying as Cherokee.
In recent days, two hosting gigs came my way. Hope you can join either or both of these events on Lansing’s East side! Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve named my column Breaking the Silence because this phrase resonates with the core of my being.
In anticipation of the column’s debut - the first Monday of May 2008 - which topics do you hope to find in Breaking the Silence? Take a moment from your busy day to let me, along with the wider intimate world, know!
Read the rest of this entry »
Crossing over 2007 to 2008 in the Hiawatha Forest brought about this poem… Read the rest of this entry »