Admissions (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781938853036)

Don Narkevic grew up in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, a steel town along the Ohio River, north of Pittsburgh. His mother, Emercine, wrote poetry as a teen, but unfortunately never kept any of her work. Once as a teen, Don wrote a poem and sealed it in an envelope, wanting it to stew for a while. He asked his mother to keep the envelope for a few weeks. She asked if it contained money. "No," he said, "poetry." Don's father, Joe, a welder, kept a copy of Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" folded in his wallet. Sometimes he unfolded the tattered poem and read it to his children. Like money and photos of family, he included poetry among his valuables.