The New School
After last weeks shooting in Parkland, Florida, I penned ‘The New School,’ which was quickly published by Rattle, an American Literary Journal, and the response has been humbling.
It has since become one of Rattle’s most shared poems, and I am so proud to have offered something of value to such a difficult conversation.
You can read (and listen to) ‘The New School‘ here.
Regarding your poem The New School, I’m curious about the university reference in the poem. Was it really yourself portrayed in the poem? And if so, what university did you attend? From the Creole reference, I would presume whomever you were describing, was at a Louisiana college or university perhaps. I suppose there could be Creole restaurants anywhere, but my mind ran to the authentic homeland of Creole cooking.
Trigger-stitched – is this neologism or a jabberwocky type of word invention? I Googled trigger-stitched and could not find a reference for it, nor was it in Webster’s, but maybe someday it will be. Seeing that the poem inherently infers gun use and thus a trigger, it is a brilliant new word invention (to my knowledge anyway) to illustrate and follow the onomatopoeia of pop pop pop with a new word that to me meant branded or stained into dreams. Just curious if it was a Bozabalian original or have I missed where this word originated?
Also curious was the reference to “the last 25” in the last stanza. I know Columbine occurred almost 18 years ago, so I was not sure what the 25 was alluding to.
Thanks for taking that moment in your car and speaking this poem into existence.
Thanks in advance for responding to my inquiry.