Saved

More artifacts from my basement dig showed that I was writing CHRCH before I knew what it would be. I called this Saved and was clearly an extension of the poem “house” found in my chapbook. I remember these red marks were made after sharing the piece during the Hurston-Wright Foundation’s writer’s workshop at Howard. Was it 2003?! It may have been my first writer’s workshop. Nikki Finney was the instructor. The top version includes a note from Nikki or another poet. Whoever it was dropped GOLD. Gold I subconsciously utilize today.

The note: “It needs to be tighter. Interrogate the necessity of each sentence and every word in the sentence. Play up the holy rollin/Kirk Franklin/hip hop parallels w/o telling. Show the frenzy, the passion. Go with 12 points. 10 points is too small. Looks like a trick to keep it all on one page.”