I slowly became aware that I knew nobody
that knew me for longer than a year.
See, that's what family does.
It gives you reference points.
I'm not defining a good family from a bad family.
I'm just saying that you know when your birthday is
by virtue of the fact that somebody tells you when your birthday is,
a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, an aunt, an uncle,
a cousin, a grandparent. It matters to someone,
and therefore it matters to you. Understand,
I was 14 years old, tucked away in myself, into myself,
and I wasn't touched either, physically touched.
I'm reporting back. I'm reporting back simply to say that
when I left the children's home I had two things
that I wanted to do. One was to find my family,
and the other was to write poetry.
In creativity I saw light.
In the imagination I saw the endless possibility of life,
the endless truth, the permanent creation of reality,
the place where anger was an expression
in the search for love, a place where dysfunction