I inherited my mother’s arthritic fingers and, for a time, stopped writing by hand altogether, convinced that my script was illegible and no one would bother to try to decipher it. But yesterday, when I was writing a birthday card, I was fascinated to see how my cursive letters leaped and bounded on the page. I looped a lariat around the “g” and “y,” added a curlicue like an Arthurian pennant to capital letters, and insisted on a u-turn to cross the “ts” in my signature with a final flourish. Mine is not a modest hand when given its head.
Angela Patten is author of four poetry collections and a prose memoir. Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, she now lives in Burlington, Vermont. Find Angela at www.carraigbinn.com.