Hello, friends! As you may have noticed, my debut poetry collection Torn in Two has been published! Hooray! This has been an emotional journey for me, both living it and then writing about it. This collection is a bit… unusual… so I figured I’d take a minute to explain exactly why I wrote it, and answer some of the most commonly-asked questions (aka, interview myself using questions I’ve received).
What inspired you to write this collection?
Honestly, it started off as just a handful of poems as a cathartic way to deal with my journey. Some of the poetry in this collection stems as far back as 2007. I recently began to put my feelings about my adoption and search for my bio family into poem form again, and it felt right. My story is one all-too-familiar in the adoption circles, and I needed to get it out.
If you had experienced total acceptance or total rejection from your birth parents, would you still have written this?
Absolutely. I think that the stories of adoptees are important to tell, regardless of a happy ending or not. Often, people hear stories from the adoptive parents and the birth parents, but the adoptee gets talked over. I wrote this collection to help change that. My particular situation of a half-happy ending creates an interesting juxtaposition for the book, but even if it was one-sided, I would have written it. I still hold onto the hope that my birth mother’s rejection of me will one day turn into acceptance, but for now, I recognize that it likely won’t happen.
Does your family know about the collection?
Yes, and they’ve purchased copies. I’ve already gotten feedback from my mom, who loves it and sent copies to her sisters. I know a few members of my bio father’s family have purchased as well, and I’m interested to hear what they think. As far as my birth mother’s side, I don’t know if they will ever read it. I hope they do.
What message do you hope to convey through this collection?
I hope people read it for what it is: a deeply personal, intimate look into my life and my journey. It’s not meant to be reflective of every adoption ever, but I know that many may find similarities between my story and their own. And that’s fine; if that’s the case, these poems are yours, too.
The umbrella theme is that adoption is messy and leaves trauma and scars not easily visible to the uninformed observer. It’s important to be aware that while it can certainly be a beautiful thing, it also leaves destruction in its wake.
Do you have more poetry collections planned?
Yes! I’m currently building a collection inspired by the elements. Right now the working title is ‘Elemental’ but that could change. It will deal with life, love, loss, and everything in between.
K. M. Reynolds 