Literature fans as well as writers, both aspiring and published, had the privilege of listening to the co-founder of the New York Writers Workshop, Tim Tomlinson, talk about contemporary fiction and poetry
A frequent visitor to Manila, Brooklyn-based Tim Tomlinson is a professor of Writing at New York University’s Global Liberal Studies Program. He is also the author of the chapbook Yolanda: An Oral History in Verse, the poetry collection Requiem for the Tree Fort I Set on Fire, and the collection of short fiction, This Is Not Happening to You. He also co-authored The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, an indispensable resource for writers everywhere.
He read aloud some of his poetry and short stories to the audience, and shared his own selections of outstanding contemporary poetry by the likes of Kim Addonizio and Sherman Alexie.
One of the most poignant pieces he read was a poem about his father, reproduced here:
At Night, After the Screams
At night, after the screams wake us,
we hear
him
make his walk
to the kitchen,
hear
his callused feet scuff
the hardwood floor, hear
him mutter curses
at the carpet,
its edge
perpetually curled, hear him
go
silent
on the linoleum
of the kitchen
floor.
So much is hidden
by our mother,
in closets
behind cans and boxes.
So much
that he loves
but we love,
too.
Mallomars, Mr. Chips,
Chips Ahoy!
We hear him
rummaging,
rummaging,
the cans clinking,
the boxes cracking open,
and his hands,
his thick
callused hands
ripping
through wax paper
and plastic packaging.
Hear
the refrigerator suck
open
sense
its light through the cracks
of our bedroom doors.
When he stands
in that cold light,
when he upends the milk carton,
when he douses
the fire
in his throat,
does he wonder, as we
do,
what made him scream,
again,
this time,
his mother’s name?
- Tim Tomlinson
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