November 8, 2023

what you need to understand
[‘you’ in this case meaning
a new reader to this poetry blog]
is that i do not write poetry
carefully
i do not rewrite and rerewrite and rererewrite —
i throw some ideas on my keyboard
and sometimes they become words
and sometimes those words fit together
just enough
to become a poem.
i don’t write with purpose
except to get more and more art out into the world
[and get these loud loud stanzas out of my head]
i don’t write for perfectionism’s sake
since perfectionism runs/ruins the rest of my life.
what you need to understand
is that this will never be
e.e. [cummings]
or dickinson [comma] emily
or bukowski
or angel nafis
or rupi
[though my shorter poems definitely emulate her]
these poems are rarely edited
barely re-read
not much adjusted to page from my head —
there’s no rhyme scheme
except
what sometimes fits together happenstance-ily,
and helping the chaos
reign itself in
is what i’m doing with these words
again and again and again —
so please,
heed my warning,
don’t expect much literarily from these words/phrases/stanzas/poems —
but expect me to show up
as i am this [and every] morning
and get something out
from me
to myself
[and then to you, if you want to read it]
[no pressure tho]

November 6, 2023

i’m feeling so at odds with my own writing this morning
like it’s a morning for reading, not creating
but i made a promise to myself —
my morning pages are for myself
to just get out what needs to get out
[and it’s ok if the posted poem for today
was not actually written today
but
i do have to write *something* today]
so what is actually in my head this morning?

November 4, 2023

it is kind of wild to me
that art in and of itself
is simply an invitation to
s t r e t c h
any truth we may want to share or inhabit

[any pureness for accuracy
may or may not be
entertaining/
good art anyway

so why not craft reality
to your individual
liking?]

October 19, 2023

i definitely feel like my concentration is a bit
gone
these days

don’t know if i’ll get it back

don’t know if i want it back

but i suppose
this is how
human-ness goes

~~~

how many times must i
write ‘how many times must i’
until it captures this tiredness
from life
and structure
and stricture
and strife
enough that i can leave
that openng phrase
behind?

~~~

don’t know if that poem is
exactly what i was trying to say
but hey —
i said it.

October 11, 2023

writing poetry
to local news
and fake laughter
and small chit chatter

writing poetry
as the world falls apart
and explodes
and explodes
and explodes
half a globe away

writing poetry as my life
has fallen to inverse-seeing
and yet i still feel stable
and yet i still feel
nearly able
to be happy

writing poetry
far away from home
but back in a home
i once knew better
than i’ll ever
know myself

writing poetry
that’s my through line
that’s my safety net
that’s my commonality

and only a few of my people
know it
read it
know me
from it

but that’s ok
since i’m writing poetry
[mostly]
for me

September 13, 2023

cryptic poems
are no fun
when they’re written for the pure purpose of being obtuse

but cryptic poems
that come fully fleshed
from the depths of your mind
and you had no idea where it came from
or even
what in the world it’s trying to confide
but it’s here
it’s out
in the world

those cryptic poems are okay.

July 11, 2023

stop writing
for purpose
stop writing
for audience
stop writing
for rules
and structure
and rhyme scheme
and
just write
for expression
for emotion
for you
for you
[for me]

[i write for me
let that be what it will be]

July 3, 2023

i have so much more i want to say
but my brain won’t focus itself in a way
that i can parse through
what i’ve said yet
and not

so i suppose i’ll wait until tomorrow
(or maybe just until this day
is through)

and try again.

February 9, 2023

is my autocorrect
sabotaging me?
filling in where i mean to leave off?
changing stances in stanzas
that need the awkwardness i placed?

my dear laptop computer,
please—
poetry is a delicate balance
of grammatically correct
and rule-breaking chaos
and i need to tread that line very carefully
so any help from you,
while appreciated,
is really not needed…

so no need to try
so damn
hard.