The Practice of Writing

The Practice of Writing

Poem 1: Words for My Grandmother

The Armenian genocide has haunted Peter Balakian's imagination since he was a young man, and it played a crucial role in his development as a poet. In his 1997 memoir, Black Dog of Fate, he describes a transforming moment in 1974, after he refused to attend a memorial service commemorating the 10th anniversary of his maternal grandmother's death. Then a 23-year-old English teacher at a New Jersey high school, Balakian wanted to spend the weekend with his girlfriend in Cambridge. But when he returned to school on Sunday night, he ...