Adoption is a wildfire, glass lake, steep mountain. Adopt, adapt, adaptation, adoption, adopted, adoptee, adulation, adoration, adult, adept, adopter, adoptive, adopt-a-pet, adopt a textbook, readopt, Hollywood adoption distortion Iron Man, Spider-Man, Superman, Annie, The Jerk, Punky Brewster, and Margo, Edith, and Agnes from Despicable Me, meme, memory, magically, mystery, we who miss, we who magic, we who breathe so deep like this.  To re-member is to become wholly functional action, to join the group again, to re-body, to mem-oir, to re-create, to re-verse, to re-collect, to re-mind, to re-sist, to re-habilitate, re-cover, re-establish, re-form. To write is to form again, establish again, to exist again. Adoption is to mind again, verse again, to build, store, create, and live again.

We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.

Spread the word. News organizations can pick-up quality news, essays and feature stories for free.

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Lee Herrick is the California Poet Laureate. Born in Korea and adopted as an infant, he is the author of four books, including In Praise of Late Wonder: New and Selected Poems.