Seeing an Old Acquaintance

Today, I went to go see visiting poet Shelby Stephenson. I did not recognize him at first. But after he mention the slave girl, July, I knew who he was. I had seen Stephenson on the UNC TV Program, North Carolina Bookwatch. Plus back in early 2009, he came as a guest speaker at my old college, Wayne Community, with three other poets. He even knows my old teacher, Mrs. Baddour. So, we have met.

Judging by the whole lecture, Stephenson is a good old country boy. His talks were about the South and including your past in your writing. Stephenson also said that the memory fails sometimes. He gets bored with writing because he loves words so much. Yet, he writes every day, just like me! Stephenson started out by going to law school, but then after a blind date, he got a job that led to his path as a writer. He also talked about the South in his lecture.

To be honest, he did get boring towards the end. Stephenson kept rambling into different stories during the whole lecture. A couple of points he spoke to some of the teachers. To my amazement this time, I did not fall asleep! I stayed awake during the whole lecture. Even though I did find Stephenson a bit boring, it was nice to see an acquaintance again in person after a year.