Chapin City Blues

Often times, I wonder how much truth I put out there into the world. Truth that I allow strangers to read. Truth that my dearest friends may or may not know. How honest am I when I write these fictions? When I recount my tales to coworkers about a life that seems to belong to someone else entirely?

As writers – as humans – we often like to recall the stories of our triumphs. Rarely do we engage in the tales of our follies. We don’t share the embarrassing rejections, but we share the meet cutes that lead to our love stories. When we do share the stories of rejections, they’re used to highlight our successes. How never giving up led us to where we stand now.

In his poem, Vijay Seshadri talks about the stories we don’t tell by recounting his humiliations. So for the eleventh poem, I have chosen “Memoir” by Vijay Seshadri. Please enjoy.

More Vijay Seshadri

• That Was Now, This Is Then: Poems
• 3 Sections: Poems
• The Long Meadow: Poems