old poetry books – A Chatoyant Fleck

I’ve moved a lot in the past year. As a matter of fact, I’ve moved a lot in my life. Before I turned the age of 18, my mother and I had lived in more than 30 different homes, but mostly in the same area of Northern California.

The moves I’ve done recently have been on a far bigger scale. However, after five countries, and two drives across the U.S. I have returned to Portland, OR. Not my hometown, but a place I had once called home for 13 years.

You lose a lot of things when you are constantly moving. Photographs, yearbooks, furniture, clothing, many things. I was fortunate enough to have friends that were willing to hang onto some of my items. Some held onto them for a year, and others held onto them for 10 years. I recently got some of my stuff back. Mostly, writings that seem too daunting to deal with, but I did find a book of handwritten poetry that I had started working on back in 2008. My guess is that some of the poems may even be older than 2008. I made the book from a 7 X 7 hardbound sketchbook. I had found the picture of Oscar Wilde in some magazine and taped it to the cover. I believe this was the time I had an art studio. I wish I could do something like that again. I had really wanted to be an artists. An artists of any kind really, but I gravitated at first to theatre then to writing.

The economy crashed in 2008, and I found myself out of work and burning through my savings and a small inheritance I received after my grandmother died. Of course the first thing to go was the art studio, then my apartment, and so on. I’m fairly certain we will be going through another crash very soon. I question returning to the U.S., but I’m here we now.

There will not be an art studio to lose, but I’ve been thinking about all I’ve lost over the years. Things I drew, videos and short films I made, writings, my theatre photos and portfolio. One nice thing about the internet is that you can store some things here. Sure, it can be ignored or stolen, but until that moment, as long as you can connect and get into your WP (what I use) you can find your work. That’s the theory and the hope anyway. So, if I put some of those poems here and I lose the book, I can still have the poems. I do like the book though. So, hopefully I won’t lose it.