The Woman Whitney Houston Loved

Robyn Crawford and Whitney Houston, 1988.

I’ll be sharing a new poem with paid subscribers tomorrow. With that in mind, I here’s a voice memo about the poem’s heartbreaking inspiration.

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My poem “Deleted Voice Message: Hey, Robyn—It’s Me, Whitney” was inspired by Whitney Houston’s decades-long relationship with Robyn Crawford. If you’re interested in learning more about this part of the singer’s life, and I hope you are, I highly recommend reading A Song for You: My Life With Whitney Houston by Robyn Crawford. Also, Kevin MacDonald’s 2018 documentary Whitney is beautiful, challenging and illuminating.