Memorial Day for Writers

American "Decoration Day" has morphed into "Memorial Day." People once flocked to cemeteries to decorate the graves of loved ones with flowers, abundant at the end of May. We could not help but think then of our recent and long-gone family members and friends. Some people don't want to recall their roots. They have worked hard to overcome the influences of dysfunctional dynasties or just plain rot.

I suggest that they are still who you are. Members of your family of origin are the characters who people your fiction and color your views of facts gathered for nonfiction. It is those people through whom your feelings are filtered every time you pen a poem. It won't hurt the person you've become to pause a moment and think about where you became from, recall who you've evolved through.

Thinking over old family stories, even the painful ones, can spark your writing career and provide insight to ongoing personal struggles. It wasn't until my mother's death almost exactly three years ago, that I glimpsed a fuller view of my personality's genesis. These are elements that make us writers and form our writing, worthy of remembering, if only once a year.

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