I don’t remember the first meal I cooked, or the first assignment I aced but I do remember my first poem. I was 8 years old and a budding freestyler when I picked up a pencil and started messing around with verses on paper. My grade 2 teacher, Mrs Simon, had taught us rhymes- simple ones- and I was hooked.
I wrote my first poem as a dare to myself. I wanted to see if I could do it. I wanted to see if I could make the words bend and twist, draw new pictures, paint new scenes. I wanted to try it out to see for myself if my gut feeling was correct- that I too am one of those people. The people who used bent words to their will and showed you the world. The poem was simple; it was a religious piece inspired by Psalms 23. I used the words “The Lord is my shepard” in the third line of each stanza to drive the point home. Looking back, it was a poem about the fear of being alone. It was about needing certainty and predictability and not getting that from people so looking to God who was sold as solid, who never would leave.
Writing is magic. I've known that for a long time now. People think that writing is only good for healing but I have found that through writing, I can create any world I want or (and this is actually what we do) I can understand the world I live in.
So why write? Because the poem was a hit and I performed it in church. Everyone liked the pretty imagery but I think someone felt the loneliness and uncertainty that I felt and could relate. That's what it's about- meeting friends in the spaces between the lines, finding out that you are not the only one. I passed my test. I wrote a poem and the world changed for me in that moment. I was home.
Till next time…