can do, the way a well-worded sentence can stun me into silence or pull a resounding “Oh, my god” from my mouth. I learned that a pen put to paper is where I could safely speak truths. I learned to simultaneously internalize my experiences through quietness and physical separation from others, but unlike my father, I took to creative endeavors in order to find ways to speak. The landscapes of my childhood have shapeshifted into graves and an abandoned home, but one singular, new reality is still possible and entirely mine to claim.
References Arellano, E. J. (2007). Taos: Where Cultures Met Four Hundred Years Ago. Grantmakers in the Arts Reader, 18(3), 1-8. de Certeau, M. (1988). The Practice of Everyday Life. United Kingdom: University of California Press. Rich, A. (1978). The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974-1977. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company.
67