What’s your favorite thing about yourself?
My favorite thing about myself is the way I write. Not just the act of writing. The way I can tap into emotions that aren’t mine and still treat them with care. As if I’ve lived them in another life. It’s not performance. It’s empathy. Real, rooted empathy, born from listening and learning, not guessing or stealing.
I don’t write from other perspectives because I want to show off range. I do it because I believe everyone deserves to be held. To be seen. And sometimes, they can’t say the words themselves, at least not yet. Not out loud or, not safely. So I write what I hear when I listen. I write what I feel when someone trusts me with their story. I write in a way that doesn’t claim their pain, but honors it. Echoes it. Reflects it back gently.
I love that about myself. I love that I don’t just have the skill to write. But also the heart to write ethically, thoughtfully and, with purpose. I am not here to play at pain. I’m here to translate it. To give shape to the things that ache in silence. I do it through poetry. Poetry allows me the ability to be exact and yet leave room for mystery. It lets me say the same truth in a thousand ways until many individuals feel it and understand it. Shit, maybe they’ll even empathize more with others.
My poetry has always been more than art. Survival. Scream, prayer, and apology. It has been the safest place I know. I can’t often work my mouth. So, when my mouth won’t open, I find poetry. It’s how I say the things I never felt allowed to say. The map of everything I’ve clawed through, and the love letter to the people still climbing out of similar things.
I know I can write something and someone else will read it and say, “That’s it. That’s how it feels.” That matters. This is what keeps me going. The idea of being published, not the praise, but the connection. The invisible thread that stretches from my chest to someone else. It’s why I make books. It’s why I write collections. So future people like me, and you if you’re different to know we lived, laughed, and fought like hell.
I do not write from others experiences as a person I am not. I simply write from my point of view as their friend, family member, co-worker, fellow human etc. Poetry like this comes in reminders to check on others or stand up for causes. It also involves protesting and addressing other subjects that bring hard topics to the front and center.
My favorite thing about myself is that I can do that. That I can create something honest and resonant. This is not just for me, but for the ones who don’t have the words yet. For the ones who never saw themselves in poems until now. For the ones who are still learning how to say, “I exist. I hurt. I matter.”
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hike poem History Lesson?
Whisper to the void it might whisper back