Notes From the Margins

This is work done by the Tacos and Trauma Writing Group, Fall 2025 - A writing group within the Margaret H. Ordoubadian University Writing Center of Middle Tennessee St

ate University (MTSU)

We met every Friday during the Fall semester 2025 to eat Tacos together and write, both separately and together, culminating in an extemporaneous group poem. Although the membership varied every week, the group began to write as a group whose voice became one as the semester progressed.

The following eight poems are the poems of this group. Thank you, Tacos and Trauma Writing Group for showing up for the group and for yourself.

Poem 4

10/3/25

We are always just figuring it out, in some sense of the word. We figure out who we are, what we think, how we feel, and many other questions, too numerous to mention. Here is a documentation of that journey of what we call identity. The identity to which we are called to live out, the identity to which we can create, and the identity to which we are becoming.

Identity—what a funny word. How does one even decide who they are?

Identity, a concept that is as everchanging as the raging sea.

Who am I really, who was or am I meant to be?

Everyone says something different, something wrong. But aren’t I supposed to choose?

How much of our identity do we choose, and how much is determined for us?

And who said? Who tells us? Who’s right? Who’s wrong. I guess just be.