For my project, I want to create poems about the Raleigh-Durham area and how they impacted my childhood. I would also like to explore themes of growing apart from one’s birthplace and how eventually, children are pushed to leave the nest. For the areas, I’m going to write about them as I remember them initially, and then I’ll try and lengthen the poems by revisiting the places and observing the changes that have taken place. One of my focuses is going to be contrasting the innocence of a child with the cynicism of adulthood.
So far, the areas that I’m including are:
- A playground outside of a Mennonite church where my friends and I played. We did a lot of things that in retrospect are kind of offensive to that church.
- The Durham Farmer’s Market where my parents sold soap. I would go with them some mornings, but most of the time I hid under the tables and did my own thing.
- Falls Lake. My dad would sometimes take me out there to swim or walk along the shore, pick up pretty rocks, poke at snakes, and talk about different subjects like work or clouds or chemistry (though he usually just info dumps while I nod along and pretend to be interested).
- Carolina Dance Center. I did dance there for five years and I was usually a bit of a loner while everyone else made friends. Sometimes I would hide in the bathroom to avoid interacting with people. Then the other students found out I was gay and didn’t want to get anywhere near me.
- The House on Ray Road, where a family murdered their stepfather. The kids attended my high school, though that was before my time. I initially thought that the family was a bunch of sickos, but then I learned why they did it and sympathized with them. I think that plays a lot into how we see things like abandoned houses, or people we used to know.
Over Thanksgiving, I’m going to revisit all of these places and try to dig up two pictures to include with each of the poems. One photo will be from the past, the other will be present day.