Wisconsin, state of grace

Memoirous is about memories and using memories to tell stories.

Memories are also unreliable. We unintentionally leave things out or embellish. Sometimes the more accurate memories have the ring of truth to them. What seems to resonate the most are universal experiences where readers can exclaim: Hey! The same thing happened to me!

Sometimes we end up just giving life and words to the mundane and everyday.

A few years back I picked up a small “poetry” book by Kyle White. It isn’t exactly poetry but more a hybrid of observations, comments, essays, criticisms, and poetry. There is line variation. This book is monumental in its scope: Wisconsin.

I know, that line made me laugh too.

It is about bundling up in snowsuits. Walking home with your cheeks stinging. Snot crusting inside your muffler. It is about the horror of returning to a normal schedule after Christmas break.

Kyle White employs everyday memories in crafting Wisconsin: river of grace. Coming from the sister state of Illinois and maybe from just being a kid, I can relate to the book, Hey! The same thing happened to me!

A young boy in his bed, the dark cold mornings, having to get up for school. You feel like you are at a dead end. No hope. Then! You remember the next school holiday: Casimir Pulaski Day!

I also enjoyed the piece about the number of times the writer had been run over—either by bikes or cars, by his family and friends, or taken out back behind the stands and beaten up by a bully. We are left with the writer’s memories as well as our own.

The stuff of life.