Congratulations, dear, on the publication of this marvelous work. Your poetry always inspires me. It's made me the writer that I am and will be. When I read your work, I strive to be 1% as good as your are. Congratscongratscongrats! I've missed chatting with you. I never forget you wonderful people, my literary siblings/contemporaries/lovers/friends/partners-in-crime. ~~Mckay. 

So wonderful to hear back from you. I will do anything (anything? anything!) to overcome that stumbling block. And yes, I fear the coming of age. Though, wait for it like an expectant child. Early this morning, I ead this poem called "Spring Lights" (if I remember correctly) by John Ashberry: it reminded me so much of your work. Keep up your marvelous writing. You won't loose your magic touch.

Ah, dear friend. It's been a while!! My laptop broke this November and so I admit to being a little scarce as wel.. So it goes, tis the season of our growings-up. Pretty soon we won't even be able to call ourselves teens anymore. Have to find spots for our thoughts in the grown-up world... Scary stuff. As for the poem- it brings me joy to find you can still feel what I have felt in creating my poetry. I haven't lost my touch! Haha. I looked into Richard Carver as soon as you mentioned him. "Late fragment"... good stuff!! Thanks for the suggestion. Lately I've been eating up anthologies from all over (weeding out books to donate to Africa). At all costs, beat that writer's block-- I look forward to more of your work! 

You lovely, lovely, you. I've yet to forget the wonderful friend you are to me and above all else the talented, creative artist you are as a writer. Forgive me for haven't logging on that much lately. Unfortunately the "real life" has kept me far too occupied to come back to this site. Nevertheless, I don't forget some of the lovely people who accepted with arms wide open, and nurtured my "children" with love and appreciation. It's poems like this that bring me back, and make me crave every day to just take some time from the madness of normality in order to read wonderful poetry like this. I've always told you that the manner with which you write about your friends is with an intense fierce love. Almost like a lover. This is clearly seen in the opening lines. "[B]ecause she is a hurricane/ of confidence and joy and/ freedom/ and all i want to do is get swept/ up." The speaker is attracted emotionally--maybe even spiritually--to this other person. She's care free, and perhaps the speaker isn't. And that's what attracting about this girl. The speaker then goes on to develop this feeling. This other girl is the core of thier friendship and their escapades. She's the reason everyone is still together. The friendship almost revolves around her, in a way. And as imperfect and human as she is, there's no avoiding her. There's no want of letting her go. Instead there's a longing to have her, treasure her, maybe even love her or be her. This poem demonstrates a feeling in every human with a certain friend. There's always that one friend who seem flawless. (I know I have some.) To me, it feels real, because I've felt these emotions, especially when I'm with these certain people. Darling, you're amazing with your talent. Keep it up. (Wish away my writer's block that hasn't allowed me to write any thing in a long time.) By the way, I recommend reading Raymond Carver, if you haven't. I've read quite a bit of him lately, due to Lorde's supposed inspiration from him. All of Us is one of his anthologies. 5/5 LOVELOVELOVE, Yours truly, Mckay.

There is so much love and compassion in this poem. It flows beautifully and the words fit perfectly with each other. I love your style and the emotion you write with. I can't wait to read more of your work :)