Hey y’all, how’s it going? I couldn’t sleep tonight so I’m up at nearly 2 AM writing. Which interestingly is something I didn’t always do…In fact I didn’t write much until my senior year of high school. Almost at the end of senior year I started toying around with poetry.
As I recall I wrote a poem called 2010. My graduation year, no less. Heck of a time to start developing that skill too. After high school I moved back home to Indiana and began writing more. Over time I’ve grown as a poet, now I’m starting to try my hand at writing a book.
Thing is? There’s no Richard without writing. It’s what I consider a spiritual gift. There”s a great many things writing and poetry have taught me about myself. Personally I started writing to deal with my emotions; not having parents around much when you’re younger leaves you with some unique emotional scars.
Through poetry I’ve been able to emotionally release a LOT of things. I’ve written about my experience with self-harm, about women who were significant at the time in my life among many other topics. There’s this great quote by Victor Hugo.
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to remain silent.”
It’s a great quote, accurate as well. However I’d say that it’s not simply music. It’s art. See artists are manipulators, though not in the traditional sense. Writers, musicians, painters etc. We’re all about bringing emotions to others. After all you can’t create art without emotion can you? Writer’s I feel are interesting in that you. The readers, y’all know we’re emotionally manipulating you.
Art is about a reaction to a large degree. So if I as a writer and poet share something. The way I’m looking at it I’m simply sharing my experiences; whether or not y’all feel emotionally touched that’s on you. Yet authors like Stephen King, Travis Thrasher and many more write stories.
We craft worlds with our words, draw y’all in and make you care about the story, the characters. When your hands are sweating as you’re thumbing through the pages of a book? That’s emotional manipulation, though I will say as an author I make it a thing to try and simply portray MY experiences with my writing.
If it resonates with y’all? Awesome. If you don’t like it? That’s cool too. For me I’ve spent a lot of time writing. Notebooks filled, countless pages of poetry burned after breakups. Throughout it all writing has well and truly been one of the greatest skills I’ve ever started to practice.
I guess y’all could say I’ve kinda got a love affair with my notebooks. I’ve got paperclips, sticky notes, rubber bands and clips to even shut the thing. Guess you could say I’m addicted to writing. Right now with all the insanity in the world? Way I reckon is there’s plenty of notebooks to be filled and plenty of things people should be opening up about now.
Whether there’s drama in your life or perhaps there’s a woman you can’t get out of your head. When you’re angry and need to rant or filled with heartache and need to vent? Notebooks, journals, sketchpads they all work. As sacrilegious as it may sound? When you write? You’re God. What I mean by this is that it is nearly entirely YOUR work.
I say nearly because I believe that I owe the gift of writing directly to God. However I’ll say that your feelings are just that YOURS. So if you’re angry, or depressed, or whatever. It’s YOUR emotions, if you write for yourself first? Then you likely won’t be unhappy with the release of emotions. If someone doesn’t like what you wrote that’s fine, there’s plenty more things to read. Write for yourselves y’all, let the rest of the world hear YOUR voice.
I’ll leave y’all with this. Professor Dumbledore had some great quotes and this one can be applied to writing as well…
Anyways I hope y’all are staying safe out there. God bless you and yours.
Rapha Yada my friends,
Richard
Holy Water, Burning Man 