Fandom
Last night I was revisiting poems and rediscovered my love for Linda Pastan's work. There's something about the way she crafts her words that I inspires me. My poetry reading preferences lean towards words that give me pause, causes reflection, and really, just shakes me to the core.
So as with all great late night ideas, I Googled her and found an email address that seemed valid. I crafted a short email and sent it off into the world, not knowing if she would ever get it, and expecting nothing. It was a short email which just said thank you for her poetry and that I enjoyed her works very much.
I was content with having sent the email in the first place because it reminded me so much of a class assignment for one of Ali's workshops a long time ago. We wrote fan letters to Lynda Barry and also sent her a small gift. I remember sending a giant microbe plushie. The project felt really childish but at the same time, really genuine because we really enjoyed her work and thought it would be fun to do something small and seemingly silly. The lovely artist wrote us all personally and thanked us for the surprise and said she rarely received this kind of comment about her art. It makes you wonder how in this age where we communicate so easily, or rather, have the means to communicate in multiple mediums, that we are able to overlook the need to express some of the more simple and thoughtful sentiments. If I really am honest with myself, the email was more for my own benefit. I wanted to make sure I put my little bit of gratitude for Linda Pastan's work out there, and that maybe some of that thanks would make its way to her someday.
In the morning, I awoke to this reply:
"What a lovely email to wake up to. Thanks so much!"
So as with all great late night ideas, I Googled her and found an email address that seemed valid. I crafted a short email and sent it off into the world, not knowing if she would ever get it, and expecting nothing. It was a short email which just said thank you for her poetry and that I enjoyed her works very much.
I was content with having sent the email in the first place because it reminded me so much of a class assignment for one of Ali's workshops a long time ago. We wrote fan letters to Lynda Barry and also sent her a small gift. I remember sending a giant microbe plushie. The project felt really childish but at the same time, really genuine because we really enjoyed her work and thought it would be fun to do something small and seemingly silly. The lovely artist wrote us all personally and thanked us for the surprise and said she rarely received this kind of comment about her art. It makes you wonder how in this age where we communicate so easily, or rather, have the means to communicate in multiple mediums, that we are able to overlook the need to express some of the more simple and thoughtful sentiments. If I really am honest with myself, the email was more for my own benefit. I wanted to make sure I put my little bit of gratitude for Linda Pastan's work out there, and that maybe some of that thanks would make its way to her someday.
In the morning, I awoke to this reply:
"What a lovely email to wake up to. Thanks so much!"