writing

July 1, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

having not written
my full 300 words
in damn near five days,
i expected to struggle to even get past
the first hundred mark

but here i am
skating over into the two-hundred zone

and i should have known
i should have known

it’s not that i’d forget
poetry-writing
or block it up
for future poetics

it’s that i haven’t been able to get things
out
in days

and i am a fountain
about to unleash
a river’s worth of flow;
a dam
that is bursting at the seams
with words and stanzas
and ideas and dreams
[and, of course, metaphors and similes]
there is a flood of poetry
erupting from me

i really should have known

June 18, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i’m just writing words
and the minute i move on
to the next line, the words above
seem to fade from my mind
immediately

i wonder if this is going to be
simply the state of
today

June 11, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

sometimes
i need to remind myself
that i needn’t set out to change minds

when i write from my own soul
no certain goal in my mind
that’s when others’ are impacted
and yes, sometimes, changed

[but what if the mind i need to change
is my own?]

June 5, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

it’s always so strange
writing in the nighttime
everyone around me already asleep

it feels like a secret
i may get to keep

unlike the morning writing times
where it flows from me
and into the ether/the void/the endless space that is the internet
those secrets i always
let
go

[and i think they may still be going]

June 4, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i have so many ideas
and concepts
and words
and stanzas
running through my head at all times

i am damn near constantly in a state
of needing to get something
out
of my system

but i don’t write when i need to
i save it all up for the morningtimes
and in the morningtimes
when i’m ready to write
i come up with almost
nothing

June 3, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i’m writing
poetry
as warm-up
for maybe something new
something old
something played
something playing
something tragic
something nostalgic
something
i’m going towards
now

May 31, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

but what to write about
when my brain feels so tired
and exhausted from trying to
be creative all week
and knowing that there’s still a couple of things
left to adjust
and fix and mix in
but it’s ok
for a first
draft

it’s ok
for my first
try

it’s ok
for a first
and maybe even a second

or maybe
maybe
maybe
it’s better than ok
for all of those things

[i need to believe
in my creativity
more]

May 22, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

gibberish poems
can become
gibberish songs
which may be
exactly what i need to do
in order to stop me
from overanalyzing
and overjudging
and overscrutinizing
my own creativity

April 28, 2025

/ HJ / Leave a comment

i don’t actually know what it means
to be
a great writer
a great poet

i’m just sitting here
at my messy dinner table
early in the morning
writing whatever comes to mind
as a way to encourage myself
to deal with the day
that is coming towards me
at breakneck speed

maybe,
when you’re in your ‘fighting a [seemingly] losing war
against fascism with the best tool you have —
kindness’ era
you’ll understand

~~~

i feel like this kind of morning
and this kind of writing
is the reason i started this challenge to begin with

i feel more awake
more aware
more ready to start my day

though i still need to edit and pick and send in the audition
i feel so much more prepared for it
now

~~~

“you look like such a writer!”
of my big sweater
comfy tee
glasses
bun
and coffee in hand

and i do, don’t i?
i do…