Since May, I've been honored to craft lovely letters, stories, poems, & words for some incredible individuals.
I'm highlighting a few of those gifts here, every Wednesday.
Today's feature is a Custom Graduation Poem called “Six Years From Now.”
During graduation season a few months ago, I made a poetry greeting card for new graduates.
I had no intention of falling in line with sadness or sympathies, or talking about “these interesting times.” Instead, I tried to tap into memories of when I was graduating—what that felt like, the things I worried about; who I was & who I was to become.
“Six Years From Now” is less of a graduation celebration & more of a call to freedom for those who finished all those years of schooling. I wrote it as a testament to a time & a mindset.
I hope it helps whoever receives it.
As always, here’s the poem in its entirety:
SIX YEARS FROM NOW Done with college, I took off to New Orleans from LA after a dream told me I would travel by train with my red hoodie, my pink typewriter, & the green backpacking bag I found at an Army Surplus store years before. I still have that bag. It's trapped in the corner of a room I no longer live in, as if to say: that was six years ago. Six years ago, you were a barista at a wine & chocolate bar on the corner of Carondelet. You fell in love with a trumpet player after he took you to see Mahler. You made money art modeling, you walked around in purple slip-ons made of canvas. You'd watch the street cars go by. Pass through parks beneath clouds with nowhere to go. A journal in your hand, a lazy grin on your face. You met a lawyer--remember? Retired. said he had no regrets, taking off the way he did, & bet I would have none, either. Oh, I'd never condone recklessness. Never. But if it were now? I'd grab my masks & my bag. My gloves & my typewriter. I'd pick any empty city--any place new just to see what it's like, what's there to find me. I bet you would, too.
—billimarie