Yesterday after work, I read in the current poetry book I’m reading (Wild Gratitude by Edward Hirsch). I’m trying to read two poetry books every week. I’ll be finishing his book today and tomorrow I’ll be starting Continuity by Cynthia Arrieu-King. I’m excited for June to roll around because my next selection of books is Sorrow Arrow by Emily Kendel Frey, Soft Science by Fanny Choi, The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde, and The Art of Recklessness by Dean Young. And that’s just week 1!
I haven’t been getting as many poems written as I would like, but I can tell that the more poetry I read, the more inclined towards writing I feel. I’ve been extremely motivated lately to get myself back into a space of continued learning and growth, both within and without the creative field. I’m rereading Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly, and I have several other self-help/self-improvement books in my TBR. Plus, I’m diving back into books on craft and I have a sold 5-10 books on craft that I want to read this year.
On top of that, I’m going to be going through all of the YouTube videos taken of the lectures and readings from my MFA and I’m going to rewatch them. I started this a while ago, but then I was working on my sequel novel and just didn’t have the energy. But now I want to get back into it, throw myself into the ether of inspiration and learning. It’ll be slow going, but I’m excited to not only return to the lectures and readings that gave me so much motivation and inspiration, but to learn new things from new lectures and readings and workshops.
It’s a big deal, choosing a writer’s life. No matter what we write–romance, sci-fi, fantasy, essays, poetry, magical realism, nonfiction, journalism–the writer’s life is important. It holds value. And while I think there’s immense value in writing for fun (fun writing is also art, by the way), there’s also a great need for writing that expands and edifies. Any and all genres can do this; we don’t gatekeep what counts as “good art” here. It’s all in the attitude. Any art is a big deal because it takes pieces of what makes us human and shares it with the world.
Make some art today.
