Poetry writing: Ups and Downs of my first year writing poetry

Hello, hello!

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. ~Khalil Gibran

This quote is not something I would've found to be relatable in 2019, but with the way 2020 has gone by, I think we can all agree that we've all ended up doing things-big and small-to adjust to COVID-19, and there are probably some things, if not all, that are surprising.

My year with poetry.

That's what I'm calling 2020.

Honestly, the primary reason I find it surprising is that I never would've thought I could write poetry! I still only write poems for myself, but every time I get one out onto the page, I feel an intense joy-similar to what I felt when i was at the beginning of my fiction writing journey.

I think that something that propelled me into poetry writing was my degrading mental state. I believe that my social anxiety starting getting worse in 2018, when I started college as a Sophomore at UMass Boston. But in 2020, I was more frustrated than ever with myself, and my career, and my life.

So I dumped out all my feelings in the form of poetry.

You know, as you do.

And I didn't think I'd ever share it. A lot of stuff at first was just too personal, and for those who know me, they'd know what those poems were about in a second, so I didn't want to have people guessing what it was about and asking me to tell them. I had just gotten comfortable writing fiction-my novel-with a good mix of myself and my experiences, and I didn't want to share my poetry when I wasn't at that stage yet.

But now, I feel like I have written enough poetry to be confident enough blend fiction with reality and it's fun, because I can create characters, I can recycle and add to stories that already exist in my head, and I'm the only one who'd know that that's what my final poetry piece is.

I think I will continue to write poetry, but something I've also decided is that if I'm going to do it, I should challenge myself. I should write about things I want to experience, things I have experienced, and things I will experience for sure.

So, how have you changed your writing this year? Have you picked up poetry as well? Let me know in the comment section below!

Catch you later!

-May