The Thinking Sapling

Looking back at my posts, I’ve noticed that I’ve been gravitating towards writing poetry recently. It’s been a part of my blogging journey for some time. So I thought, why not write about what I find satisfying about writing poetry?

In addition to poetry, I write reflections. My reflections are a weird jumble of internal monologue and some attempts at deduction. I’m just basically writing what words are in my head. In a way, these reflections are a way of communicating random ideas: thoughts that arose while reading or seeing a random chicken in the field.

Yet written essays can’t quite capture the ideas that I wish to write at times. Perhaps I lack the writing skills to pull it off, but I feel it is harder to communicate emotions through essays. When communicating how I feel, I find that the descriptions I write don’t quite capture it. So how do I capture emotion in writing?

It began with my first poem about Lily. It was meant to be a short story, but I lapsed into making things rhyme, and before you know it, I was writing a poem. When writing, I wanted to discuss the sensation of being isolated and decided that the best way to write it out was to put readers in that headspace. Rather than imagining the emotion through description, I felt it would be better to evoke emotion through the reader’s imagination.

What I like about these short story poems I write is that I get to focus on tinkering with the words and imagery to invoke something. What that thing is, is hopefully something someone can think about for a few seconds.

It also provides a convenient shield. Emotions can feel very personal, and writing out the exact experience of them can be daunting, even if you think it’s something the world should be more conscious about. In this format, I don’t have to trauma dump the reader and instead craft a more refined story.

I’m very far from a perfect poet and am very much still learning. I’ll probably be writing quite a few more of these and telling myself, “show, not tell” as I go. Stick around if you want to read them! No pressure.