then poetry happened

People sometimes ask me, did you always want to be a poet, is that what you really wanted? And I reply, as truthfully as I can: first of all I wanted to be a circus performer, not just any performer but a tightrope artiste. And I knew the word `artiste' and felt it was very grand and that was precisely what I wanted to be. Meena Alexander, Poetry: the Question of Home

Photo: unidentified youth in a Tokyo jazz coffee shop

by Michael Rougier, 1964 via Tomboy Style