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Poetic Evolution
my beliefs about poetry as a teenage poet vs. my beliefs about poetry today
When I first started writing poetry as a teenager, I held many beliefs about the art. Over the years, some of those beliefs have remained the same, but many have evolved dramatically. Here are just a few of my personal “poetic evolutions.”
When I was a teenager, I thought that nature and natural elements belonged in the background of poems, that humans were always the most interesting subjects.
Now, I understand that nature can be the one of the best subjects for a poem and natural elements need not be hidden in the background.
When I was a teenager, I thought being cryptic, obscure, and amorphous was the key to writing great poetry.
I now understand that writing in a way that is simplistic and raw often makes a bigger impact.
Similarly, I thought that in order to be a published poet, I needed to write poetry that was cryptic, obscure, and amorphous.
I still believe this to a certain degree, but now I just don’t care as much.
When I was a teenager, I would wait for poems to just “come” to me instead of sitting down and writing with purpose.
While I still believe in the magic of epiphanies and spontaneous inspiration, I now know that writing regularly is the…
