Creating a Life Story, Year by Year, 8 Words at a Time
In February, I drew this woman while experimenting with a digital pencil. I thought briefly about using the image — for a poem, or maybe a short story—but never found the right inspiration. She waited.
I happened upon her image again shortly after Thanksgiving and thought it was finally time to bring her to life. But she had haunted me for so long, I felt she deserved more than one story, I wanted to tell all of them. I needed help.
Loading her photo into a draft, I wrote a letter to my fellow poets and writers.
“I want to finally tell her story.”
Listing her lifetime in years (Age 1–80), I asked them to “tell us something that she did, or that happened to her, or simply in her life that shaped the woman she is.” The sole caveat: in 8 words or less. I published. I waited.
I am putting her life in your hands.
Within moments, I got a bite from a master of blending beauty and brevity, marika bianca. She wrote: “(at 23) She met the love of her life. (at 24) She let him go.” And just like that, in 11 words of subtle juxtaposition, her life began.
Tamyka Bell joined shortly thereafter with “She proudly stood on her own two feet.” — a line she crafted for Age…
