
Sometimes timing isn't just coincidence. "Shooting Stars and Origami Swans" arrives at a moment when trans visibility feels both more dangerous and more necessary than ever. As Trump prepares to return to the White House and anti-trans legislation continues to surge across the country, I find myself confronting an irony beyond belief -seeking greater privacy even as I prepare to share my most intimate truths through this collection.
The path to publishing this book wasn't easy. So many things contributed to its delay – personal health challenges, my focus on running my business and advocacy work, the search for cover imagery that felt authentically me. But now, it's being released just as Trump is returning to office, and I can't help but feel that perhaps the universe knew exactly what it was doing. Perhaps these poems needed to arrive precisely at this moment, when the trans experience has been weaponized by hard-right conservatives, Christian nationalists, and evangelicals who hide behind religion and free speech to deny our humanity.
Too often, the trans narrative is told through statistics, through sensationalized media portrayals, through the distorting lens of fear and prejudice. People hear the facts and figures, they see the stories told in movies and magazines, and they think they understand. But numbers can't capture the depth of emotion in a child's heart as they struggle with identity. Statistics can't convey the mixture of anxiety and joy in finally embracing your true self after decades of hiding.
This collection is my attempt to offer something different – a window into the emotional reality of the trans experience, specifically my trans experience. These poems can at times traverse lifetimes in just a few lines, capturing moments of despair and triumph, of hiding and emergence, of fear and hope. They offer insights that traditional biographies or articles often miss, exploring the spaces between the facts where emotion and truth often live.
I wrote these poems not just for myself, but for other trans people, especially those still waiting in the shadows, those forced to hide their truth, those wondering if it's too late to become who they really are. I want them to know that even those of us who waited decades could still find hope and joy, could still live authentically. My journey to transition at a later age is woven through these verses, offering testament to the possibility of transformation at any stage of life.
The vulnerability of releasing this collection feels different from my previous works, even "Glass Hearts and Broken Pedestals." While that book was deeply personal, "Shooting Stars and Origami Swans" exposes the very marrow of my being in a way that collection did not. These poems capture not just my experiences but the way my mind processed them, offering a fuller picture of what it means – for me – to be transgender than any speaking engagement, panel discussion, or personal conversation I’ve participated in ever could.
In many ways, this collection serves as both mirror and window. For trans readers, I hope these poems reflect something of their own experiences, their own emotions, their own journeys. For others, I hope they provide a glimpse into experiences they may never otherwise understand. My hope is that this poetry helps bridge the gap between statistics and humanity, between political rhetoric and lived experience.
The timing of this release, coinciding with a period of increasing anti-trans sentiment and legislation, adds another layer of significance to these poems. At a time when many of us feel pressure to become less visible to protect ourselves, this collection stands as an act of resistance – a declaration that our stories deserve to be told, our experiences deserve to be understood, our humanity deserves to be recognized.
As we face the prospect of another four years under leadership that has historically been hostile to trans rights, these poems feel more necessary than ever. They remind us that behind every statistic is a human story, behind every policy debate is a person's life, behind every political argument about trans rights is someone's journey to authenticity and self-acceptance.
"Shooting Stars and Origami Swans" is more than just a collection of poems – it's a testimony, a torch of hope in increasingly dark times. Through these verses, I hope to challenge the narratives that dehumanize us, to counter fear with understanding, to replace prejudice with empathy. Most of all, I hope to remind both myself and others that even in times when we must be cautious about our visibility, our truths still deserve to be told, our stories still deserve to be heard, our experiences still deserve to be understood.
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Shooting Stars and Origami Swans
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