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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/reigns.jpg\" "\\"reigns\\"")
\nHe speaks of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of careless parents, the unconditional and unjudgmental love of a grandfather, and of being bullied as a boy for being gay. But, for any boy who has ever waited in center field for a pop fly he was certain he would drop, or for a girl who has worn something she thinks is wonderful only, to be dismissed and ignored, there is in Reign\u2019s evocative words, recognition \u00ac\u2014 an understanding that any one of us could have stood there waiting to disappoint an already disapproving parent or vainly hoping to impress a schoolmate. <\/p>\n
There is also, in the way he reads his poems and answers an interviewer\u2019s questions, a simple and direct respect for the audience and the questions. \u201cI write the way I do out of respect,\u201d said Reigns. \u201cIf readers give me their time, I must honor that. I\u2019m flattered that people pick up my books and read them. That is something I want to honor by producing good work.\u201d Of the simplicity, the plainspoken nature of his writing, Reigns said, \u201cI don\u2019t want the readers to feel they are solving a puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n
He writes, what reviewers have called, autobiographical poetry. He will talk about his latest collection, \u201cInheritance,\u201d as part of the Idyllwild series. These poems, mini-memoirs of Reign\u2019s formative years and the challenge of having lived through the AIDS crisis, are organized in three chapters, each headed with words taken from last wills and testaments \u2014 \u201cSeized and Possessed;\u201d \u201cDevise and Bequeath;\u201d and \u201cResidue and Remainder.\u201d <\/p>\n
Inheritance, as Reigns writes, is not about receiving money or material, but about what is psychically left by triflers and abusers after one\u2019s youth and adolescence has passed.<\/p>\n
Early in the beginning of what has become a very successful career, Reigns wrote about both real and imagined scenarios. He soon abandoned that as inauthentic and lacking the requisite bravery that honest communication with his audience demanded. \u201cI needed to step out from behind a curtain,\u201d he said. \u201cThe struggles I faced were grave. What was the right amount of disclosure? How does one say the unsaid?\u201d <\/p>\n
What he learned and continued to practice was to give voice, on the page, to total honesty, no matter how difficult. \u201cI trusted the page completely,\u201d he said. He could say in his writing what he would not say in person, in conversation, even with the closest of friends. \u201cI feel safe in exploring things in my writing that might embarrass me in person,\u201d said Reigns, revealing a bit of his Midwestern sensibility.<\/p>\n
In addition to a degree in creative writing, Reigns holds a graduate degree in clinical psychology. He uses both in his many workshops for LGBT teens, seniors and people living with HIV\/AIDS. He is both teacher and activist. \u201cI could not have been an educator without having been a writer first,\u201d said Reigns. \u201cI feel great fulfillment in connecting people with information. Poetry is one of my great loves and I get to share that in my teaching.\u201d As to the compatibility of his two loves, poetry and psychology, Reigns quoted Sigmund Freud, \u201cEverywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reigns appears at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 30, on the upper deck of Caf\u00e9 Aroma. He is the first poet in Santiago\u2019s series. There is no charge for admission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Steven Reigns, poet and next presenter at Eduardo Santiago\u2019s Idyllwild Author Series, is from St. Louis. And although place of birth does not necessarily define one, it can inform one\u2019s choices and determine how one navigates the world. Reigns\u2019 poetry has been called plainspoken. In fact his poems, though difficult of subject matter, are sparse, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n