My agent Jessica was in town for a few days last week. The night she arrived I did a reading at Signal Return, a letterpress shop in Detroit’s Eastern Market. I was reading with Deonte Oyesande, a local slam poet, and we had a group of about three dozen people in attendance, including a class of sophomores from a Detroit-area high school. I even made a flag for the event – the first produce of my new sewing hobby; the photo above is of the audience designing their own flags for the interactive portion of the night.
I write a lot here about cycles, transitions, crossings over thresholds. I forget sometimes that the befores and afters aren’t always clear and separate. Just because I’m in a new phase doesn’t mean the previous stops echoing. Just because I’ve found a store of energy doesn’t mean there aren’t days when I’m tired, sleepy. I see an image of myself constantly preparing to travel; I forget sometimes that, often, the preparation is the trip.
Back briefly at my parents’ house again today. Planning to go meet some new friends this afternoon. I look forward to settling more into the new apartment, look forward to finishing these last episodes of the podcast, look forward to spending more time with the characters in GRACE. But then again, as always, I’m trying to look where I am, too.