Poems as journaling
Observations from 100 day projects past
Just last week I finished a poetry workshop with Anne Haven McDonnell, and wow, I was introduced to some really fascinating ideas, learned about some wonderful new-to-me poets, and wrote several new poems of my own. It was a delight! We also had the pleasure of a guest speaker which I will talk about more another time. I will be processing everything from this class for weeks and months to come!
During this workshop, I looked back through my 100-day project poems to find some subjects to revisit. For instance, I had the idea to write about a penguin whose existence is threatened by climate change, and I had roughed out a poem on day 42/100 (4/4/23) on this topic. As I dug back through my notebooks (all my poem first drafts are on paper, except for the rare moments when a poem comes to me and all I have is my phone, in which case I will jot it down in the Notes app), I noticed how some of the poems essentially function as journal entries. They can transport me to a specific time and place effectively. Sometimes this is because the poem's topic is directly derived from an event of the day. Sometimes it is because of a general mood or emotion that I was trying to capture.
Since I have not been diligent about regular journaling lately, I am happy to have a journal-type record through poems.
Currently reading: Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Just finished: {audiobook} Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murders by Jesse Q Sutanto
Recent internet search of note: platypus venom
The fact that this is a searchable thing is a testament to how interesting platypuses are/were in their evolutionary history!
ICYMI: My poem “Brood X” was published in December 2023. This is feeling more and more topical as a brood of 13-year cicadas is emerging in my area right now!