I was listening to a podcast the other day about poetry writing, and one of the people on it mentioned word vomit – basically just any and all words coming out onto the page. Then she would take her word vomit and turn it into a poem, or maybe even multiple poems. I’m all into word vomit, but I lost my taste for poetry while working on my bachelor’s degree. It sounds like I’m not the only one to which this has happened; another on this podcast told a story eerily similar to mine.
I had two experiences that left me feeling down on poetry. The first was an English Lit class where we were required to interpret poetry. My interpretations were always “wrong.” I always wondered why there can’t be more than one interpretation of any writing based on who’s reading it and what their life experiences are. Then I got into a creative writing class where the poem I had written was “cliche” with no further explanation (same experience as the one podcaster). Oh the irony of the instructor’s misinterpretation of my poem! Maybe I just don’t understand poetry, I thought and I never did it again.
Listening to this podcast made me think about picking the poetry pen up again. So what if my poem is cliche or downright terrible? Does it really matter? What’s really important is how it makes me, as the writer, feel. The podcasters explained that writing their poetry made them calmer, more at peace, a meditative exercise. Who couldn’t use a little more peace in their lives?
Maybe this week I’ll pick up the poetry pen and spew a little bit of word vomit onto the page – see how it makes me feel. Maybe I’ll rearrange the word vomit into my first poem in more than ten years. Maybe I’ll be brave and share some too. Maybe, just maybe.
I think you should. And then you should share it. 💜💜💜
Thank you! ❤️ I will see what I come up with. 😊
I can’t wait to see!!
❤️