In a city that loves the taste of marshmallow pies

I’m honored to have my poem “As the Story Goes” leading Issue 5 of Forage Poetry Journal on the poetry of personal myth.

My poem is inspired by and roughly modeled after Vandana Khanna‘s lovely poem “Insignificant Beginnings,” the first poem in her award-winning collection Afternoon Masala, which I reviewed here in the Daily News Journal in 2015.

I think this is a great poem to model as an exercise:

• in the place you were born, what is loved? In Van’s poem, it’s “a country that loves the sound of vowels.” In my poem, it’s “a city that loves the taste of marshmallow pies” – a reference to Chattanooga, home of the MoonPie.
• what might have been a sign of your birth?
• what is something specific your mother might have been doing in the days before your birth? your father?
• what are some of the origins you ultimately feel most linked to?

Remember, it’s your mythology, so don’t be too anchored to the facts.

Read “As the Story Goes”

For those of you who may be finding my work for the first time, thank you so much for reading. You can read more of my poems that have been published online here.  My chapbook is listed on Amazon, however, due to the death of my small publisher, I now have most of the remaining new copies. You can order here in my shop.