Hi everyone,
Welcome to 365 Days of Poetry & Honesty! It's the last day of February & we’re officially two months in :) I was telling a friend that a part of me worries that all of this is insignificant but she reminded me that this matters. And she helped me remember why I started this in the first place. I worry all the time about my future as a poet, if it's possible, and I realised that in all that worrying I was looking for someone or something to deem me a worthy poet, to say you have a right to call yourself a poet and to be honest, to make money from my poetry. I was entering things, receiving rejections and each time my ego would take a big hit & I’d be questioning my ability to even write. And I write, I write all the time and the thought that I was just ‘wasting' my time felt awful. So I started this. Something that felt tangible, that was my own, a space for myself to grow as a poet by allowing myself the license to simple be & try and write everyday and see what I end up with. And I’ll be honest it's lonely and the anxiety that comes with being vulnerable is tough but it's also freeing and completely Oyinda & my own and my truth and it matters. Longest introduction yet ahaha but I hope you enjoy this week’s poems! Thank you for being readers.
Monday
I read a ‘A Room Called Earth’ by Madeleine Ryan and it was a like a mirror to my own thought processes. It was interesting. & I really recommend the book! The poem is based on a lil love scene towards the end of the book, it was quite wild & magic & sensual and I felt like a giddy teenager discovering ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’ by Charlaine Harries, later adapted into ‘True Blood’ (lol)
Tuesday
I didn't know I’d be referencing ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’ til I got to that stanza & I asked myself what I was getting at. It was like a lightbulb moment & then I googled the synopsis just to make sure and I was certain. People make you & experiences make you and I think it's okay that I also say that some experiences I don't want or I wish I never had but at the end of the day, here I am still whole so that's okay but the sentiment is there.
Wednesday
Thursday
I am lucky to have the friends that I have and knowing where I was when I was 15/16, I am so grateful to have had friends around me who validated my emotions and uplifted me. My friends have been my lifeline and friendship is sacred.
Friday
Things to grapple with.
Saturday
Sunday
In the event that I subject myself to a relationship with a man, although the whole point of this poem is to say the opposite.
Thank you for reading the newsletter this week! <3 Let me know which one was your favourite, or if you have any comments/feedback in general :)
With love,
Oyinda