I have been writing ever since I can remember. Almost every job I’ve had I have found a way to jot thoughts down. Whether on a napkin while at the theater, or the back of receipts at K-Mart, or post-it notes – there is always a little scrap of paper for me to doodle my thoughts. My bedroom is a cluttered mess of all my little notes. I don’t keep them because I think I’m brilliant (well, maybe a little), I keep them because they are a little piece of me. So, I’ve been writing a very long time.
I wrote a lot of poems. At least, that’s what I call them. Poetry about people, jobs, awkward situations, funny thoughts – you name it, I wrote about it. About ten or so years ago I realized something. I am not a poet. My writing seemed trite. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t improve. I felt I had peaked and so I stopped writing. Poetry anyway. I could never stop writing completely. That would be like holding steam inside a kettle with no outlet.
A couple of years ago, my friend told me about the blog she writes. I had never followed any blogs at that point. But it sounded like fun and an outlet for my writing. I didn’t expect much (but there’s always that small hope of being an internet sensation).
I started with prose because that’s what I like to write. One night, I suffered a case of writer’s block. I wanted to post something but the well was dry. So, I turned to a poem compilation I had given my mom of my old poems. I remember I felt embarrassed for publishing a poem and I didn’t expect much. Actually, that’s not true. I expected someone with a Poetry PhD to call me on it. “Poet fake!” I expected to read in the comments.
What happened instead surprised me. I received my first subscriber and received a compliment. But I shrugged it off.
But that did give me the courage to try another poem a few nights later. I received a few likes.
How odd.
After a few poems later, I decided to attempt two poems a week. One poem to release the serious side of me and the other, well, a little more me.
Every time I publish a poem I am surprised at the reaction. Since I don’t know the future of my blog or how long I’ll keep it up, I decided to protect my poetry. That’s why I decided to compile them and let the fine and willing folks at Amazon help me out.
That’s how a girl who describes herself as a non-poet ended up with two poetry books. Go figure!