breaking ground

The beginning. The setting. The site. The floor work.

Inspired mostly by Loic, I'm gathering the strength to flesh out my debut poetry collection. Something that I had set out to do more than four years ago and then life happened- as it does for each one of us. It took a very comfortable back seat, featuring in the conversations of where I see myself in 5-10 years… a published writer? maybe? So this is a deliberate move to bring “ENJU” to life. I wanted a place to document the building, not just unveil the structure.I hope to share my experience of joy, memory, womanhood, grief, desire, the soft undoing and the long slow stretch of becoming.

I love, love and words. Summer of ‘23 I was blessed to meet someone who changed my experience of those two things- love and the weight of words. He honestly believed I was gifted, brilliant even. I wonder if affinity bias was involved. He watched me weave worlds with my words and would ask me to make it real by speaking them out loud. I would pretend I hated reciting in front of him, the performance of it all- and yet there was no resistance. Deep down he knew it was not a performance, he knew those words were his to receive, make space for and house. The pieces he got to listen to or read will continue to be savoured privately in hopes that they remain ‘ours’. Enju will not be about him- not entirely. But it is for him.

This space- House Hunting- is not where you’ll find the finished poems. it is where you will find the process. A few excerpts and mostly the rooms I pass through in my mind while writing, the quiet spaces where meaning tries to take form.

Thankyou for being here. For stepping inside. Even if the floor creaks , or the walls aren’t finished.

AlynnM