Photograph by Kelly Meehean-Smith

In one of Tara’s newest poems, “The Month of May,” she pays tribute to two murdered children in her hometown of Monroe, MI (outside Detroit.) Nevaeh Amyah Buchanan was abducted and killed earlier this year, and touched an emotion: Tara’s brother Kenny was murdered in May, just four years old, before Tara was born.

The Month Of May

The little town where I was born
lost another life today
Snatched from her own front yard
during a spring-like day in May
And many of the residents stood in shock
saying, “This kind of thing doesn’t happen here!”
But I remember a little boy who lost his life
in the same town during May of a different year
For that little boy was my brother Kenny
and he was just four years old
One day, he was snatched behind a tree
where his life was stole
Now he rests in a better place
with his favorite old teddy bear named Fred
And he welcomes a new angel to his world
as Nevaeh peacefully rests her head
My comfort comes knowing their spirits are free
as I imagine they are fast at play
Kenny, Nevaeh and an old bear named Fred
Safe from the wicked days of May
There is no rest for the evil souls
who take a child’s last breath
For innocence should never have to know
the pain of such brutal death

Copyright 2009 by Tara S. Zawacki (All rights reserved)

“The affects of his death have always had a profound impact upon my family,” says Zawacki, author of Too Many Tracks For The Train To Follow. “His presence is always with me; always a spiritual, yet extremely complex part of me. My mother used to write many poems about my brother as she dealt with her own mourning. She was always very open with me about her feelings and what she had written, so in many ways, she taught to how to channel that energy into my writing.”

The complexities of life, emotion, and dealing with occurrences and issues have driven Tara since age 15. Seventeen years later, Tara still deals with love and relationships as part of an emotional growth. Anger, bitterness, frustration, and in the end, a turn to hopefulness drives “Fairytale.”

Fairytale

You ask me
what lies behind
these tears
of
mine
	And I will tell you
		that I am walking through
			a generation
				that has forgotten how to love.

A generation that has
misplaced
its beauty behind cold stares
and reality TV images
that feed off of the degradation of woman
and breed off of our general lack of imagination.
Hollywood has pimped us.
It’s true.
Hollywood has frigidly screwed us in the night
and left us to be
damsels in distress of its horrible image.
We have walked aimlessly
as confused women
whose thoughts have been
molested with
twisted promises
	and fairytale visions
		that blur our existence
leaving us constantly searching for
shallow arms
and dark hallow places
	to house our homeless hears
		waking up only to the notion that
			Prince Charming never existed
and we are merely forgotten faces
on his list of
	enchanted whores
		he has encountered.

You ask me
what lies behind
these tears of mine
	and I will tell you
the last time I checked
I still live in this nightmare
I still exist in this loveless affair
I still woke up
a woman this morning
and grasped one last time
that Prince Charming
could really be out there.

Copyright Tara S. Zawacki (All rights reserved)

But no subject is taboo. Her blog, Soul Blessings (http://soulblessings.blogspot.com) talks about topics from the recent death of Michael Jackson to women’s rights to Detroit’s Inside Out Literary Project (http://insideoutdetroit.org) .Tara, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in African American Studies with a minor in Religious Studies, often speaks about leaders not found in her school history books. Her passion for the field was fueled at a young age in school, frustrated by the lack of information on African-American leaders in her history books. She passionately teaches her reader—and her audience at poetry events—about leaders from Paul Robeson to Mary McLeod Bethune to Malcolm X.. One of her favorite poems (and earliest works) “Historical Mystery,” unfolds a life lesson and passion about uncovering leaders undiscovered in the classroom.

Despite Tara’s emotional and creative growth, she considers herself more the student than the teacher of poetry. She hopes to bring more poetry, and access to poetry, with her Master’s degree studies. And while she grows and evolves with every line, she says what her readers and listeners take away is both personal and educational.

“To be honest, I like to leave what someone takes away from my work up to the individual,” she says. “I think poetry is a learning process, both for the writer and the reader.

“I have had some readers who got a totally different meaning from my poems than what I may have intended when I first wrote them. They have taught me many things through their own interpretations of my work that I greatly value.”

Tara Zawacki’s Too Many Tracks For The Train To Follow can be found at Createspace (https://www.createspace.com/3365619)