3-31-41 Is Coming

As this year rolled in, I realized that the numbers of my birth month, day, and the age I will be when put together had a nice ring to them. So just for fun, I made a YouTube video with those numbers as the title, "3-31-41". The more I looked at those numbers, I realized their significance should not be kept just to myself.

You see, the reason those numbers are so important to me is because I have long stated how from my early teens until I finally came to terms with my orientation in 2002, I had contemplated suicide. So I'm blessed to be alive and look forward to how on March 31st, I will turn 41 years old. A fact I revel in even though aging is considered a BIG "NO-NO" in the gay community. And I felt I should share with those who were or are where I once was, and maybe inspire those in doubt to keep pushing forward, making them aware that I know of their pain. But more importantly, I want to pay remembrance to the spirit of those we've lost to that denial of themselves, whether the way they were lost be by living double-lives, repression, or worst of all - suicide.

So that little YouTube video made for fun has now become an actual poem of deep meaning, along with a newly written preface poem, all of which I will debut at this year's Rainbow Book Fair's Poetry Salon.

Last year, I wasn't aware that the 5-minutes allotted for each poet meant doing as many poems one could do in that amount of time. Hence why this year, I got creative and wrote the preface. Also like last year, there will be a chapbook available for purchase with poems from the participating poets. With that in mind, I decided to let my poetry for reading and the chapbook to cover the genre of Romantic, Erotic, and Socially Conscious.

The preface will cover the Romantic and give a taste of socially conscious, while "3-31-41" is totally Socially Conscious, and my submission for the chapbook (which you may have seen before) will cover the Erotic.

This year, the Rainbow Book Fair is on March 24, which is exactly 1 week before my birthday. So the timing couldn't have been more perfect.

Besides my poem, as the flyer shows, with all there is to take in,
I hope to see you there.