For those who can read between the lines o f the word anonymous, this is my tenth birthday and in a way my resurrection for a past. This morning I awoke to the knowledge on radio that it was Tennessee Williams' birthday too.
In 2000 I applied to three colleges Lynchburg College, Mississippi College for Women (admitting Men since 1972) and Pan American University. I was offered a job at all three: three for three... I took or chose the Lynchburg position. That is where I crashed and rose in sobriety starting this day. I often wonder why I rejected Columbia, Mississippi.. and it came to me today listening to the tribute to Tennessee Williams.. . I knew I would,have crashed and burned and never risen in Columbia... the air was too thick and the mud too sticky. .. and the nights seemed there so silently wild.
My anniversary poem of sorts..
Morning Light on another birthday
The light enters here .
Tennessee William's birthday celebrated on the radio,
a square light slowly rises in four window panes in my bedroom. The cd alarm
has been playing Greensleeves
a sunless sky filling with morning light
waiting for the king
to arrive.
I am up too-- with coffee, hot on the palate
now a story about Joe di Maggio. I remember I was interviewing in
Tennessee William's home town, Columbia, Mississippi,
the year before this birthday.
I can't imagine now how I thought it was too decedent for me.
I would have blended in to oblivion there maybe.
Ritualizing my bourbon and scotch to ferment
into the Mississippi emptiness.
But now I awake clear headed,
cool skies,
time to wash and rise.
