Between grades 6 and 7, my family took a cross-country road trip to the closest thing I have to "The Old Country." That would be the island of Newfoundland. The home of my maternal grandmother. It was the farthest I have ever been from home, and it really changed me.
Fast forward to grade 12. At this time, Charles Bukowski opened my eyes to free verse and open verse poems. His short, staccato and to the point style was influencing my writing at the time. In a "drill" for my writer's craft class, I wrote most of the first stanza on a scrap of paper. I found it a while later and liked it. I expanded and refined it, until it reached this point.
