poem a day

December 10, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

write fast
low batt
oh no
your little arms are shaking
quaking in your shoeless boots
how long till the computer shuts down
could be two seconds
could be ten minutes
who knows
who knows

~~~

is my writing any good?
i ask in a poem
no one
will probably ever see
but me

~~~

the feels
are getting to me–
the random flashes of memory,
the stop-me-in-my-tracks because
a song reminds me of
a random day i had once
so so long ago
but it won’t leave my head–

why can’t i move on?
be the person i want to be?
connect with the child i used to be
without this inner teen crashing the party
every time i try to heal?

(i know,
i know,
it’s because i need to heal
the adolescent
as well)

December 8, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i don’t understand
how to be a person
interacting with other people.

i kind of understand
how to be a person
interacting with one other person,

and i kind of understand
how to be a me
interacting with only myself;

but multiple others???

i either am too loud
or too quiet
or too uncomfortable to do anything else—
so…what does that mean?

does that make me less of a person?
or more?
does it make me an introvert?
does it make me socially anxious?
or simply anxious all the time?
is my perception of myself based on how little others can perceive me?
or is it something else entirely?

or are these all questions
that only i can answer
for myself/
accurately
?

December 7, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i write
every morning
to warm up my brain

i write
every morning
to feel a little more awake

i write
every morning
to get the creative juices flowing

i write
every morning
to feel like i’ve accomplished something

i write
every morning
because morning is when i’m at my best

i write
every morning
to continue a streak
because once i set my mind to something
i accomplish it
and i vowed to write every morning
and so i’ll write
every morning
until i feel
i’ve succeeded

(and then maybe move on
to the next hyper-fixation)

December 6, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

precariously balanced devises
plugged in to cords that show all the wires
on top of older machines
and books and unlit candles and things
i feel like the quintessential
adhd
disaster

but hey
it does
work

December 4, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

how
can i constantly feel
like a novice
in all i do?

i’ve performed all my life,
but i still feel second/
third/
fourth/fifth/sixth/
end of the line
when it comes to opportunities
for the stage/screen arts.

i’ve had six plus years in the air,
but i’m a perpetual student
here.

i’ve written
every
single
morning
poetry
for over a year and a half,
but i’m still too scared to submit,
to hear the possibility
that i’ll forever be
amateur;
living only for the love of words,
never ‘going anywhere’ with it.

and what’s so bad about that?

capitalism/colonialism/white supremacy
forces our minds to find some meaning
out of what we can produce/expert the field
in a way that makes money—
churn out content/
content/
you need to create more content…

where is the place for creating for the sake of creativity?

and why can’t i find my own balance?

i think
it’s because
i just want to feel
like i know
something.
i want to feel adept/
professional/
expert/
master/
ace/
like i don’t have to second guess every choice i make—

that’s what i want out of my crafts.

December 3, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

what a weird week
said multiple people these past seven days
not necessarily bad
(nor good either)
just
weird.

and i have to agree;
going from being terrified to submit to anything,
theatre/
film/
voiceover/
experimental/
at all
(for fear of the inevitable
no-reply rejection)
i submitted to three things in two days
and got auditions for over half
(still have to audition,
but damn
does it feel like
the relief
of crawling out of a ravine
but looking up to see
more walls surrounding you
again)

man

i chose this.

December 2, 2022

/ HJ / Leave a comment

self-care december
we’re doing things we don’t normally do
(and some we do, in fact, normally do)
to see ourselves become the version of ourselves
we/
the planet/
each other
needs

it can be an event
a food
a conversation
a lack of workaholism
a slowing down
a dancing up
a gentle nap with our injured pup
pretty much
anything
we deem
good for ourselves

it should help us breathe through the holidays
it should help us enjoy these dark day times
it should help us get into next year
relatively unscathed
and still breathe through every day

mindfullness
meditation
self-care
no longer foreign concepts to be misunderstood or eye-rolled at
they’re recommended because they work
because repackaged for a non-colonized audience
that’s simply called
living

December 1, 2022

/ HJ / 1 Comment

i think it’s funny
how every morning
i sit down to write my poetry
and [almost] every morning
as i sit
i think
to myself
“man, i am not feeling the poetry today”
but i still write
at least one
(because that was my promise
to myself)
and think about picking an older poem
to post
but then i write
and write
and write and write and write
and have a poem (or three)
to post
plus a few
for a later need
plus maybe one or two
for warmup and whatnot
and how
did i become
the person
who just churns out words
again
and again
and again
ad nauseam