Several of my comrades have already begun blogging about our experience. You can check out their blogs here, here, and here. Today we talked about our writing processes. Mine is increasingly recursive and disorganized. I'm recognizing, however, that the serpentine coiling and extending of my writing might just work better for me than a linear approach that always starts at the beginning and ends at the end. Now I never really know where my writing is going to go when I set pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and I'm totally okay with that.
In this spirit, as I was trying to figure out where to begin chronicling this process in the public domain, I thought it might be appropriate to post my letter of intent here, for the world (aka the 5-11 people who view my blog each time I post) to see. But instead of putting the original here in full, I'm snipping it down into a poem- keeping only the essential words and phrases for the sake of both length and a new-found spirit of risk-taking. (An aside-I just decided this right now, midway through this post. I'm telling the truth, you can choose whether to believe me or not, but I promise I'm regretting the choice to post a poem on the internet as you read these very words.) Take a peek as I declare my love/hate relationship with writing after the break.
with writing
in fits and spurts.
inspiration
productivity
intense devotion
months of neglect
I used to be prolific.
If someone asked me,
“Are you a writer?”
I would have answered
YES
without hesitation.
I'm a blogger
a poet
a journalist
an academic
a songwriter
a writer
of course.
It didn't matter if it was good.
It mattered.
It was good.
I should do more
but
my work doesn't meet my
adult
expectations.
I blame myself.
expect students to succeed
where I struggle.
To prioritize
what I neglect.
I want to be a writer
again.