(New Orleans Review 29:2 2003) The Open Family There’s a way to open a house like a doll’s house the roof has hinges it swings out with a squeaking sound there’s a way to open a family to find everyone in their bedrooms sleeping waking up its three a.m.
Thanks, Richard. I'm not sure, because of the shock I was in, if it has ever felt more than like a dream to me. It shaped us, no doubt, but it is like a dream. And not like a nightmare either. Just a long long ago dream I moved through.
The punctuation I think has an hypnotic effect but for me, reading it the first time, it is visceral and terrifying. Impressed that you could re-live it in a way. (I am not sure I could.) Almost like therapy for PTSD. How it reaches to the present day and what it means now feels darned difficult.
More than the house burning was the loss of family. Everything fell apart, more than a death would have done. The pain of that as ensconced us, forever I think.
Thank you, Alex. It's an old piece, and somewhat different from my newer work, but I still love it. The editor of New Orleans Review actually called me at home to go over the poem with me. I didn't know editors ever did that.
Wow, I was with you the whole way: the urgency, but moving slow as if in a nightmare, the confusion and panic. Vivid and heartbreaking.
I felt every word of the experience, Rebecca. It is not possible to forget.
Thanks, Richard. I'm not sure, because of the shock I was in, if it has ever felt more than like a dream to me. It shaped us, no doubt, but it is like a dream. And not like a nightmare either. Just a long long ago dream I moved through.
The punctuation I think has an hypnotic effect but for me, reading it the first time, it is visceral and terrifying. Impressed that you could re-live it in a way. (I am not sure I could.) Almost like therapy for PTSD. How it reaches to the present day and what it means now feels darned difficult.
More than the house burning was the loss of family. Everything fell apart, more than a death would have done. The pain of that as ensconced us, forever I think.
One of your best writings, Rebecca. Wow. Simply wow.
Thanks, N. It seems like I wrote it a 100 years ago, instead of....I don't know.....20?
Each paragraph reads as one rib from the rib cage of the whole, Rebecca.
What a wonderful way to put it, Mahdi!
Wow
Thanks, Kathleen.
You’re welcome, Rebecca
❤️
Why, Hey there, you!
What a powerfully written piece 😮 👏
Thank you, Alex. It's an old piece, and somewhat different from my newer work, but I still love it. The editor of New Orleans Review actually called me at home to go over the poem with me. I didn't know editors ever did that.
Wow that’s extremely cool!
It really was amazing. The editor told me she did it all the time.