On the freedom of writing about everything with little care if it is read.
In my last post I declared that for me poetry was on hiatus. I intended to veer back to where it started, to the telling of short stories, the challenge of flash fiction.
And, as always happens, my inside has taken hold and now all these poems are emerging, and I can’t help but tell these stories by rhythm and line break and white space and even punctuation if I can get it right. I’m exploring emotion thanks to a poetry school course and it’s tough and awful and wonderful and magical. I’m getting feedback on my words and feedback on my feelings and people talk about a safe space and this relative anonymity makes me feel I’ve found it. And safety cushions danger, which make creativity and suddenly I don’t mind that this post will not be opened, read or shared or liked on here because 17 other people are reading what I write and they’re not commenting for algorithms or to make useful connections they’re comment because we each know how it feels to draw out words we hope will land.
Poetry seems to be lodged in my spirit as the way to express these ways and thoughts. Perhaps it will change, perhaps this is a response to (finally) having both diagnosis and treatment ., which enables me to reach into these darkest stories, relive and retell them without the fear of terrible consequence. Perhaps it is because I am old and no longer worry about what people will think. Perhaps I will go back these tiny, poetic stories and tell them in a longer form. Whatever comes, or not , I am glad to have found the place where writing comes from my soul rather than a desire for recognition.
Until next time
Kathryn
Xx
“Whatever comes, or not , I am glad to have found the place where writing comes from my soul rather than a desire for recognition.”
That feels like such a homecoming. Writing from your soul instead of for applause—that’s a quieter, steadier kind of joy no one can take from you.
I love how you’ve refound your poetry, mine seems to go awol unless I tell someone and then one will sneak in. I quite like writing to a smaller audience as well for me, it feels less scary.