Jim Daniels:That Explained Everything

Everyone has their own version of Detroit, so I always tell people, this is just my version — I don’t want anyone to think I’m an authority on the place — as you point out, I haven’t lived there in a long time. I do go back frequently because much of my family and most of my oldest, best friends still live there, and that certainly keeps me emotionally connected. I’ve never been good at letting go of things — I just try and carry them all with me — so I suppose I have an inclination to not want to let go, though I also think the place won’t let go of its hold on me either.

A lot of hauntings, for sure. Two in particular that I continue to write about. My next book, Rowing Inland (Wayne State University Press, 2017), contains poems about both of these hauntings. The first girl I ever really kissed died in a fire down the street when I was in eighth grade, and that’s like a permanent sliver in my heart. The other haunting is that my father had a brother and sister that both died when he was young, and my grandparents — and my father — never mentioned them, the grief was so profound, so I didn’t know they even existed until I was in college. And then that explained nearly everything about my grandparents and father that I hadn’t understood.