One of the pleasures of a poem is that you can hold your turn as long as you want. No one’s going to interrupt or talk over you. You can say whatever you want. You can whisper or shout.
I was thinking about this idea of poetry as speech recently when someone on twitter shared this beautiful poem by Linda Pastan, Why Are Your Poems so Dark? I’ll share the whole thing here:
Why Are Your Poems so Dark?
Isn't the moon dark too,
most of the time?
And doesn't the white page
seem unfinished
without the dark stain
of alphabets?
When God demanded light,
he didn't banish darkness.
Instead he invented
ebony and crows
and that small mole
on your left cheekbone.
Or did you mean to ask
"Why are you sad so often?"
Ask the moon.
Ask what it has witnessed.
today’s exercise
Make a list of questions that people frequently ask you—maybe especially questions that are rude, intrusive, or that you feel you can’t answer fully honestly. Pick a question or two and spend ten minutes or two pages or so responding. Feel free to be sassy or sharp or weird in your response. You can answer the question, or not. It’s your turn to talk.
a note about this year’s #notapoemaday practice
What we’re doing in this practice is just writing snippets, rather than producing a poem a day. Don’t worry about what you’re writing or if it’s a poem yet or if it fits into the bigger book you’re dreaming of. We’re just getting started. (The fuller rationale for this practice is in this post.)
And an invitation: if it helps you to share, you’re welcome to post a sentence below, or email me, or put your work on twitter or instagram. I’d love to know what you’re up to, and sometimes that little bit of accountability can help you keep going. And if you have a friend you think would benefit from a little more writing in their life, I’d love it if you would share the newsletter with them. It’s been such a joy writing with you all these first couple days, and I’ve loved the work people have reached out to share.
I’d love to hear from you. You can always reply to this email, comment below, or find me on twitter (@nancy_reddy) and instagram (@nancy.o.reddy).