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June 24, 2004
some decisions and direction...maybe
I've been thinking lately about what I want to accomplish with my daily published (but read by no one, as yet) writing. I remember being in an advance poetry workshop as a senior undergrad, where the prof (a poet I admired as a poet and despised as a teacher) revealed the secret to making our writing work for both us as writers and for our audience: we needed a "bag." Like, his bag was being a tall, sensual, African-American male up from the 'hood. Other bags in that workshop were the misunderstood pot-smoking long-haired mellow dude, the angry-ish lesbian, the Sylvia Plaith-like translucent-skinned girl exploring sex and sexuality, etc. I felt like getting into a bag as a writer would limit me--but I was also afraid of the bags I had available to climb into: married, young mother, white, writing teacher?