Reunion: Recovering a Past

by Brenda Mantz

The longing to tell one's story and the process of telling is symbolically a gesture of longing to recover the past in such a way that one experiences both a sense of reunion and a sense of release. Bell Hooks This short book of poetry and prose is my attempt to recover my past

72 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2010

About the author

L I F E S T O R Y

I sat at the table in the little house next to the creek that was also just beginning to thaw and wrote.

Pye Dives for the Oarlock

Getting Baptized

What I Left Behind

Running

Fishing With Mama

They made their way from memory to story and then I stopped.

I pushed aside Life Story and went kayaking on the creek now completely thawed and filled with spot and sailboats fishing boats and swans and just a few jellyfish. When I started again I wrote in a tiny room

I could hardly breathe in that room.

But I wasn’t there to breathe I was there to write.

Back To Embudo

Stephen Moves Into His Studio And I Get Drunk

Mama Dies

The Festival

I added story like a child adding ornaments to an already full tree.

Which was my favorite?

Where did it belong?

“I remember when I collected this one.”

“I don’t care for that one any more but I cannot discard it yet.”

Some had poetry.

Some had pictures.

Some even had recipes.

Quince Preserves.

NC Bar-b-queue.

Collards.

It was a feast.

I fed bits of Life Story to friends then to strangers who swallowed it whole and said “May we have some more, please?”

I gave it to them and went back to make more Life Story.

When it was finished I sent Life Story on a journey with only a flimsy letter to keep it company.

I was disappointed when Life Story came home with an even shorter rejection letter.

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