Sometimes, a book takes you down so many “Memory Lanes” that you just have to sit with it longer than you would. Kym Gordon Moore’sWe Are Poetry is one of those books. I can tell that the author loves poetry, and she also loves learning about poetry.
Kym Gordon Moore does a fantastic job sharing her thoughts and observations about poetry, its origin, the writers who are well-known for it, and how we can all grow from it, and learn to use poetry as a form of expressiveness and encouragement.
I love how she pinpoints society’s best known poets against lesser known phenomenal writers and how we should be aware of them as well.
She not only shares these facts, but she also gives readers a tutorial of sorts into the various forms of poetry and how to write them. If you’re a lover of this genre of writing, you are going to be in heaven as you thumb through the pages of this book.
She closes the book with her original poems that make up a good portion of the book’s ending. I have to admit, for me, this is the meat of “We Are Poetry”–the part that fills the reader up.
Every poem stirs up a different emotion, and they are all very well-written. Kym did an excellent job weaving in comedic verse and reflective poems, too.
If you’re interested in learning different forms of poetry, reminiscing along with an author, and experiencing several emotions, too, then I recommend “We Are Poetry” to you. Your heart and mind will thank you.”
Get your thinking caps on and grab your learning tools. It’s time to give poetry the respect it is due!
You’re writing your autobiography. What’s your opening sentence?
My original due date, relayed to my teenage mother, was April 1st, however, I was two weeks late–while still in the womb, I knew I wouldn’t be anyone’s fool, and I was right.
I tell people all the time about how I was two weeks late coming into this world, but I’ve been on time ever since. And I make it my life’s work to NOT be anyone’s fool.
If I could dodge an April Fools’ due date, I can avoid being a habitual fool for anyone.
AI Generated Image of a Black Teenage girl with blue eyes, wearing a blue shirt, with curly, long brown hair. Created with Canva.
She bounces off the school bus, hair flying in the wind, legs shuffling up dirt behind her swirly body.
Kelsey is a 14-year-old athletic ball of energy who recently discovered she is adopted.
Her mother tried to tell her subtly for years, but Kelsey has always been enamored by fanfare and elaborate explanations. She searched for answers and found them.
As she skips down Tulane Dr., the sky smiles at her, the sun whistles, and cars honk their incessantly abusive horns.
She is heading home to nowhere, where no one is family.
Why are we here with this topic? Well because, I am sick and tired of seeing young women well past the baby stage with baby hairs casually laid across their forehead and edges in almost every hairstyle dreamt up by current and trending stylists who want to keep this God-forsaken look alive when it should be dead, eulogized, buried, and left ALONE!
I said to my best friend and cousin in a text message the other day: “I really, really hate those stinking fake baby hairs these young women have in their hairstyles. I cringe every time I see it. *Sighs*” My cousin, ever the optimistic, responded, “It’s a fad. This too, shall pass.” It’s a fad that doesn’t need to be a fad that makes absolutely no sense.
Back in the day when this style was IN, circa the 70s, 80s, and 90s, little girls and young women actually had baby hair or slick hair with which to lay their edges and forehead. These young women are creating curly Qs and baby hairs where they just aren’t supposed to be and doing so in such a way that requires calculation and geometrical tactics, and I just have to shake my head. Exhibit A: feast your eyes on this YouTube short of someone teaching her audience how to apply baby hair to a hairstyle:
I should have prefaced this by saying if this is your thing . . . do you, boo. Please, do you. There are a ton of other things I could be soapboxing about, but this here is the hill I chose today, so here is where I stand. I love people expressing themselves in every way they choose, but what I do not like are folks grabbing hold of something they think is new and running that thing into the ground without being keenly aware of why that thing existed in the first place.
The crush’s daughter loves this baby hair trend. I told the crush how I felt about it and she is in agreement. Her response was, “You know these kids gotta do what they see others do. Makes no sense to me, but that’s how it is now.” And yes, that is HOW it is now. There is no originality, no uniqueness, no want to build and create something that may not have happened before or to at least put such a spin on that thing that folks believe it has never occurred before.
I am going to segue briefly to the fact that I encountered a clerk at The UPS Store a few days ago while mailing a package who could not read cursive. I spelled my name, my mother’s name, the addresses, etc. And she still did not type the info correctly into the system. I finally had to pull out my driver’s license, hand it to her, and say, “Please just look at my license and get my information. I’ll repeat the recipient’s info momentarily.” I was so frustrated with this child that I had to take several deep breaths when exiting the store. This is what happens when cursive and penmanship are removed from schools.
The younger generation has a foreign language before them when one writes in cursive. It’s perplexing to me, and I will never understand it!
Back to the baby hair issue. My godsister had a style with baby hairs when I went home to Savannah, GA to visit this past April, and it took everything in me not to word-vomit all over our brunch every time I looked at her. She’s in her 30s. WHY, boo?! WHY? LOL. She asked me a few times, “You okay,” and mildly, each time, I’d say, “Yeah, I am good.” Because my food was too good to allow the likes of someone else’s hair to ruin it and the mood was far too great for me to actually dampen it with something over which I have no control. I wasn’t going to rain on everyone’s parade. I know when to reel it in and act accordingly. But boy was it hard!
It is becoming evident that my generation is old and bold and the younger generations behind us are young and shunned. We can survive with little to nothing, display ingenuity when it most requires it, have lived through getting home before the streetlights came on, know what VHS and cassette tapes are, and can probably quote 75% of the movie The Color Purple (1985) without hesitating or flinching.
If you are a habitual baby hair applier, I wish you peace. I hope you find the hairstyle that fits perfectly with your face and head, and that you do not continue to beat a dead horse that should have never been resurrected. And if you intend to carry this trend deep into 2025, at least, use gels and spritzes that won’t push your hairline back five years from now. Think of your forehead, children . . . think of your edges. What have they ever done to you to deserve this?
*No baby hair was harmed, maimed, or brutally criticized outside of this post. Don’t come for me, please.*
HAPPY NEW YEAR, beautiful people! If you can’t laugh, you can’t live. Peace and blessings. And may the new year be most kind to all of you.
Sometimes, people have a way of making you believe in your work more than you did before reading their thoughts on it.Khaya Ronkainen is one such person. Her recent review ofSéduire: Serial Tales & Flash Fiction in Lit eZine, Vol 7 sets a gimmer of pride deep within my heart for the work I created. It is a blessing to read the following lines:
The book title Séduire—meaning “to seduce” in French—has an alluring ambiguity that could play out in several intriguing ways. When mulling over the title, three interpretations came to mind. First, the art of seduction where characters use charm and persuasion, sometimes edging into manipulation to achieve their goals. Another aspect is the case of the “forbidden,” enticing readers to explore risky or morally ambiguous choices made by characters. Then the intrigue of the mind examining how people, beliefs, or environments steer characters towards obsession, inspiration, or change.
These above interpretations are not far-fetched. Because the experience of reading Tremaine Loadholt’s collection of Serial Tales and Flash Fiction, Séduire, felt akin to delving into a jar of assorted cookies where one isn’t sure what to expect, owing to unique flavours and decorations that the author could have added in the batter, so to speak. However, this book should not be mistaken for the sweetness of cookies. It is an incredibly moving collection that explores dark themes such as loss of love, death of a loved one, racial prejudice, sexual abuse, among others.
Stories such as “We Don’t Talk About Daniela,” “Phara,” “Reflections of a Lost Love that Will Never Be Found,” and “Mr. Bradford and His Ox Collection” are deeply affecting, leaving a lasting impact on the reader. The serial story “Clover,” narrated by a child, captures a family’s aspirations as they climb the social ladder, despite racial prejudice they have to contend with. Yet, the collection balances darkness with warmth, including tales of lovers’ reconciliation, a rebellious teen transformed under the guidance of a caring aunt, first-time parents, and more, inviting readers to witness characters navigating life’s trials.
To read the review in its entirety, please direct yourself to the site for the eZine. I am honored and thankful to have a writer and reader of Khaya’s caliber review my book in a way that leaves me magnified by every word–pleased that I took a chance on myself. As writers–creatives, sometimes, we need this, and well . . . I needed this.
Séduire is a collection of serial fiction tales and flash fiction standalone stories written over a period of three years. Dive into the world of a little girl whose family uproots and moves to “The Deep South” because of a new opportunity presented to her father. Transport yourself to the life of a little girl who becomes a mother and a sister to her child at the hands of her sadistic and evil father. Walk with a grieving sister and her mother as they remember a woman who was brutally murdered by her partner. Her young boys live out her legacy as they mourn her.
Experience parenthood as you enter the world of soon-to-be young parents and their ups and downs in life change them significantly while they journey along their new path. Make a brief cameo into the hearts of a dedicated aunt and a rebellious teenage niece whose father has lost his grip on his child.
There are so many more characters with which to connect. As you thumb through each page, the author wants you to feel something; with these stories, you will.
Have you gotten your copy of my new book: a collection of serial tales & flash fiction, Séduire (E-Book and Paperback) yet?
The Lovely Ones who purchased their copy of Séduire (including me), Part II. Photo Collage Credit: Tremaine L. Loadholt. Individual photos taken by the beautiful ones holding up their copy.
I ain’t never heard that word before. We were at recess. Sammy Jr. lunged it from his lips in my direction and it slapped me across my face. I could feel that word settle into my skin — make itself at home. I felt . . . I felt unlike myself.
A lone tear slid down my left eye, waded on my cheek, and quickly dried. Another one followed, then another. And soon, I had to ask Ms. Poole if I could go to the bathroom. Ms. Poole excused me and I sat in the only stall in the boys’ bathroom and cried.
I didn’t know the word — not at that time. Not then. But I knew something about it wasn’t right. It made me ball up into myself and want to disappear.
–The N-Word At Recess, Séduire, page 9
During that time, Randi Rocketeer was my favorite t. v. show. Randi Haltman, the show’s protagonist, was a trans woman with dark pink hair, rosy cheeks, and eyes of two different colors. She had the most amazing spacesuit! It came fully equipped with a water compartment, visors for protecting the eyes from direct sunlight, and custom-designed gloves monikered with Randi’s initials. Strapped to her waist, Randi had a can of compressed air, for what, I never knew.
Not only was the suit prepared for the dangers of space, but it was also tie-dyed with the following colors; purple, pink, blue, and yellow.
I found myself mystified by Randi Rocketeer. Every day, promptly after doing my homework and eating dinner, I plopped my bony hind-end on my mother’s shiny, hardwood floors and switched on the television.
-Far Out, Séduire, page 18
“That old piece of junk! Man, it doesn’t even have windshield wipers! What’re you gonna do with that pile of crap, Core?!”
Corey hears his big brother’s words echoing in his ears throughout his school day and he finally tells himself that he will quell Nate’s voice once and for all. He is going to buy that old Chevy from Mr. Bankman, fix her up, and name her “Judy.” “Pretty Judy . . .” He has been saying this in his head for the last three days. “Pretty Judy.”
Judy needs plenty of love and care: new tires, new windshield wipers, a new engine, spark plugs, front and rear-end alignment, an alternator & starter, and a bit of bodywork, and paint. Corey has been working with his dad at “Cruz & Cars,” their family mechanic shop after school and on the weekends, so he knows a thing or two about building a broken down vehicle back up to a recognizable and suitable state.
He is ready.
-fixer-upper, Séduire, page 21
Séduire is a collection of serial fiction tales and flash fiction standalone stories written over a period of three years. Dive into the world of a little girl whose family uproots and moves to “The Deep South” because of a new opportunity presented to her father. Transport yourself to the life of a little girl who becomes a mother and a sister to her child at the hands of her sadistic and evil father. Walk with a grieving sister and her mother as they remember a woman who was brutally murdered by her partner. Her young boys live out her legacy as they mourn her.
Experience parenthood as you enter the world of soon-to-be young parents and their ups and downs in life change them significantly while they journey along their new path. Make a brief cameo into the hearts of a dedicated aunt and a rebellious teenage niece whose father has lost his grip on his child.
There are so many more characters with which to connect. As you thumb through each page, the author wants you to feel something; with these stories, you will.
Thank you so much for trusting my work enough to make it a part of your reading collection. I appreciate you, and words cannot express how grateful I am. Peace and blessings.
Have you gotten your copy of my new book: a collection of serial tales & flash fiction, Séduire (E-Book and Paperback) yet?
A Cornered Gurl 
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