Author Kevin Powell grew up without much physical affection. He says the first time someone tried to hug him was in college; it felt like a foreign concept to him. In his new book of poetry, Grocery Shopping With My Mother, Powell examines his relationship with the single mother who raised him – the one he now cares for in her older age. He tells NPR's Scott Simon that writing becomes a way to heal and forgive, even if it means confronting a whole lot of hurt.

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