Once, there was a Poet, who woke up one day and thought long and hard about why it was that poetry was so important to them.
For a long time, the Poet had used other people’s imagery as a prompt, and it worked very well. The visual nature of such pieces unlocked something basic inside their brain, and allowed them to write freely and without issue. Having to work with a single word was… well, a lot harder, especially if the word had multiple meanings. It made life more problematic.
Then came a period across several weeks when many situations that were previously difficult to discuss in reality emerged in poetry. This was why poetry had been worked on, after all, and the results were a distinct step forward from previous work. The Poet’s mental health however began to suffer, which seemed odd because so much of this was necessary. To have these experiences in the open mattered a lot.
Why was it causing them so much anguish and stress?
Then it dawned on them: the problem was time itself. As ideas began to stick, as other poets’ means of communicating with the world finally began to evolve within their own brain, time was altering a finally fertile, internal landscape. This had never happened before in the entirety of their personal experience, because there had never been the comfort and safety of a space in which to do so.
Trauma defined so much of what they had previously been, but as it was finally brought out into the open and considered, their shame at what had taken place in the past began to soften and shift. It will never leave, and that is a truth that can finally be accepted for what it is. Sometimes, you don’t need to get better. You just need to accept what it is that is actually wrong with you.
This weekend, therefore, is all about the movement of a whole in a different direction. The Poet is well aware of the process, and the importance of editing… but sometimes, their spontaneity is what matters most of all. Everyone has to start somewhere, and this is a good place to begin. Also, just because you work on the weekends, doesn’t mean everybody else should. Let them be. Start again on Monday.
Take the time to relax while you can.
The Internet of Words 