October Mourning: A Song For Matthew Shepard

OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song For Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman

On the night of October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a gay, twenty-one-year-old college student was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die. The Gay Awareness Week was beginning at the University of Wyoming, and the keynote speaker was Lesléa Newman, discussing her book Heather Has Two Mommies. Shaken, the author addressed the large audience that gathered and remained haunted by Matthew's murder.

October Mourning, a novel in verse, is her deeply felt response to the events of that tragic day. Using her poetic imagination, the author creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company, and Matthew himself. More than a decade later, this stunning cycle of sixty-eight poems serves as an illumination for readers too young to remember, and as a powerful, enduring tribute to Matthew Shepard's life.

I had the opportunity at the 2012 SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City to sit down with Jane Yolen (award-winning author of over 300 books for young people!) to hear the scoop about the latest book coming out from a member of Jane's writing group, the incredible and ground-breaking author Lesléa Newman.)



Lesléa and her publisher gave me permission to share two of the poems from the book here:

from the Prologue, pg. xv

THE FENCE
(before)

Out and alone
on the endless empty prairie

the moon bathes me
the stars bless me

the sun warms me
the wind soothes me

still still still
I wonder

will I always be out here
exposed and alone?

will I ever know why
I was put on this earth?

will somebody someday
stumble upon me?

will anyone remember me
after I'm gone?

and, from page 16

THE FENCE
(that night)

I held him all night long
He was heavy as a broken heart
Tears fell from his unblinking eyes
He was dead weight yet he kept breathing

He was heavy as a broken heart
His own heart wouldn't stop beating
He was dead weight yet he kept breathing
His face streaked with moonlight and blood

His own heart wouldn't stop beating
The cold wind wouldn't stop blowing
His face streaked with moonlight and blood
I tightened my grip and held on

The cold wind wouldn't stop blowing
We were out on the prairie alone
I tightened my grip and held on
I saw what was done to this child

We were out on the prairie alone
Their truck was the last thing he saw
I saw what was done to this child
I cradled him just like a mother

Their truck was the last thing he saw
Tears fell from his unblinking eyes
I cradled him just like a mother
I held him all night long

Jane's right.  The poems are stunning, and so powerful.

"OCTOBER MOURNING: A Song For Matthew Shepard" is out today.  Add your review in comments!