Dear Beautiful Gay

<p><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>In 2021 my </span><em style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Erasures of My Coming Out (Letter)</em><span style=color: rgba(51 51 51 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> won The Poetry Box's annual chapbook competition. A hybrid erasure collection I attempted a redaction flipping the meaning of my coming out letter and the act itself on its head. I was influenced by the work of Jen Bervin Mary Ruefle and Ángel García. What if I never had to come out? Never had to write such a letter? What if the process was rendered unnecessary-erased? What might I have done with that energy if it hadn't been exerted on hiding on passing on fear on denial? A few of the questions asked and answered. </span></p><p></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)><em>Dear Beautiful Gay </em></strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>is a companion collection. I remain haunted by the letter and felt there was much more to say. In this current climate and political context I crafted a love letter to my younger self to my older brother Stephen to my LGBTQ+ students family and friends to all the Beautiful Gays in my life. I felt an urgency and a need to celebrate our collective humanity. It is part tribute part rallying cry.</span></p><p></p><p>------------</p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Proving herself to be a master of the erasure form Mary Warren Foulk revisits the 2002 coming out letter she wrote to her mother which she so beautifully mined for her award-winning collection </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Erasures of My Coming Out (Letter)</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>. Beginning as a tender message of support to her younger self </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Dear Beautiful Gay</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> becomes a celebration of- and rallying cry to- friends and family under threat by a society that persists in perceiving them as being outside the norm. To read this stunning collection is to experience new waves of meaning and emotion with each poem not the least of which was my wish that Foulk's mother (parents) had responded to her coming out with the same loving acceptance that Foulk offers every beautiful gay.  </span></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>-</strong><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Linda Ferguson award-winning writer author of <em>Of the Forest</em> and <em>Not Me: Poems About Other Women</em></strong></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>In a letter Mary Warren Foulk began her plea to her mother to understand her committed relationship with a woman. A letter meant to open discussion. She looks again at the letter and sees words and phrases embedded addresses to Dear Beautiful Gay. Her erasures reimagine the letter to yield affirmations statements of support and love. The content finds possible rejection but also acceptance and respect. Foulk advises not to be silent hidden or denying. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Dear Beautiful Gay</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> is an exquisite work of erasure that ends with hope love and trust for every one of the beautiful gays. </span></p><p><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>-Tricia Knoll poet of <em>The Unknown Daughter</em> and <em>Wild Apples</em></strong></p>