Hi everyone,
Welcome to 365 Days of Poetry & Honesty! I hope you’ve had a lovely week. We’re in May and it feels wild to say that I have definitely written over 130 poems! This journey has been incredibly fulfilling and I’m proud of myself for making this commitment and carving out this space for myself. When the idea first came to me I was really concerned I was being unrealistic about my capabilities, even though at that point I’d already been writing everyday, I just wasn't making a point of it. But doing this, it's my second language, it's a practice, it's what makes my heart sing. And that never felt credible, just silly. Till now! Also it's funny, I kept banging about how I want to be published and I realised a couple of days ago, I already am, I created this space with the intention of having somewhere to publish my poems, and although I phrased it as “somewhere to put things down”, it's all the same thing, I was the one making value judgments, telling myself all of this meant something small because some of kind of publishing authority had yet to deem my work worthy of publication. And that's how I lose my voice, looking for outside validation! Anyway, I feel incredibly grateful to have this poetry newsletter, and to have you all as readers. I have somewhere to put things down and I have people who respect and appreciate my work. Thank you!
After that long introduction, here are the two songs for this week. The first is both by one of my top favourite artists - Mereba - and also one of my forever songs! I look up to her a lot and her body of work is breathtaking. The second I heard on Friday and have been playing non-stop. I find it very comforting and it makes me want to get up and live my life.
I hope you like the songs this week & that the poems move you <3
Monday
I love this poem, I was thinking about it in the shower, particularly the word “prevailed”. It's what kicked off the poem, I saw it somewhere and it struck me and I started writing. There's actually a stanza that should have come before the first one but I took it out because it didn't really add to the potency of the poem. Anyway, back to the word “prevailed”! I think it stuck to me because of that “v” sound, when you say it out loud it’s like it's being pushed out of your mouth, and that process, I dunno, like it mimics the uphill battle that life can be, and pushing through things. That's why I love this poem and also why I love speaking my poems.
Tuesday
I don't think jealousy is useful, it's like putting yourself in a pit.
Wednesday
Thursday
The first line of the poem I took from a caption from a few stills in the documentary ‘David Lynch: The Art Life’. I haven't seen it and I think I will but I really liked “dark, fantastic dreams”. In the section I saw, he says that he never studied and that “The only thing that was important is what happened outside of school, // people and relationships, //slow-dancing parties, // big, big love // and dreams – // dark, fantastic dreams.” I felt a little validated reading it, although I will say there was once a time where I was very studious. Now, not so much lol
After I wrote this poem, I remembered I’d started another poem a couple of years ago with the same phrase “Big Love”. I’ve included it below, but I did make some edits! I’m not the same poet I was in 2019, but I wish I’d kept it in its original form for comparison!
Friday
I had a tarot reading done and towards the end, she said I should make it a point to say out loud “I am worthy of love regardless”. I had written this poem before the reading but as I was thinking about the affirmation, I started thinking about this poem and it suddenly felt incomplete, so I wrote it into the poem.
Saturday
A love poem, a sweet one <3
Sunday
Nothing but the promise of my truth.
Thank you for reading my newsletter. I hope this next week is full of joy! <3
With Love,
Oyinda
*Also I want to say that whilst I’ve had my poems featured in some amazing and beautiful publications, what I mean by published is that I want a book with just my poems in them, I wanted something tangible. And although the format is different with the newsletter, it’s something I need to celebrate!