three generations
Three Generations is my chapbook published in February 2010.
I decided to lay to rest my two previous chapbooks: (re)genesis (2007) and lemons & potpourri (2009). There comes a time when you have to self-edit. Both books mean a lot to me and to other folks as well, as I’ve been told. They are testimonies to specific times in my life—the journey to political consciousness and the (re)making of one’s self; and the convergence of love and womanhood (which I had been avoiding up until then) and the joy and hurt that comes with it.
Three Generations takes the core parts of both books, and with a good chunk of new poems, is a collection grounded in movement and migration, change and understanding, and in conviction and appreciation. It is an experiment in finding peace with your own history forever intertwined with your family’s and the fates of nations you call “home.”
Call it another rendition of the “generational gap.” But for me, it is more than just an exploration of those dynamics. It’s a statement. An assertion of where I’ve come from and a reminder that with everything I do, “I am the one who is fortunate / to even write these words without punishment.”
