"Revision is forgiveness; revision is hope" were the words in our writing-into-the-day, words from Katherine Boomer that resonated with me.  And then "revision is just that--revision--and it doesn't necessarily mean improvement" that Cindy Urbanski said spoke to me as well.  Both happen to me--and sometimes at once.  So we are revising today in SI to think deeply about our words and how we mean by them.  And I rewrote this poem that I blogged out last week.  In this draft I reshape the poem and give it a title.  What might seem like little word changes, changed the poem.  In this revision local changes made for global revisions.

White Folks Christian Childhoods

In response to Nikki Giovanni's "Nikki Rosa"

Childhood memories aren't a drag for white folks.

It's those of your teens and twenties that really get to you,

The years where all that Christian upbringing, like

sex being only for bad girls

and being smart means not being quite as smart as a boy--

It's the teens and twenties that really get to you.

Because you have to iron out

All that shaping you got as a child

Undo yourself and do-over

Ditch the icky husband you married by mistake

Claim your mind, your words

And that can be hard on all those childhood friends

and family

who made your childhood memories oh so nice.