Growing up Me

Book excerpt: These poems were culled from my writings of the past thirty years. Sorting through them, I noticed that many were about my childhood; I decided this would be the theme for a book. Getting Above Myself was my first title: it meant three things to me: a childhood notion of the greatest crime one could commit, an ironic take on that idea and finally, the perspective needed for me to see clearly the events I was writing about. This seemed too complicated to convey in just a title. Next I thought of Growing Up plain, straightforward, but also imprecise. I am neither social worker nor psychologist. What I have to share is my personal experience. So, Growing Up Me. The thirty-eight poems in this book cover a period from my birth through high school. They are arranged chronologically by subject and cover such topics as education, family dynamics, the church, and my growing awareness that I was gay.