Like many other modern humans, I am guilty of becoming complacent in my daily and professional lives. Even though I have been absent from this space for quite some time now due to several professional commitments, I have not abandoned writing or my search for a sustainable writing practice. After spending so much time around several strong people that exhibit the most beautiful writing habits, I decided that they had inspired me enough to try a new writing venture during the month of June, Lexington Poetry Month, or LexPoMo for short. For anyone who has ever had to listen to my poems, you may understand why I never call myself a poet; that truth does not obscure the fact that I can find enjoyment through writing poems even if the process still hurts me like exercising in a new way. LexPoMo challenges participants to write and post a poem every day during the month of June, and while I did write a poem almost every day, I learned a far greater lesson that I wish to share from this experience that I think will benefit writers much more than hearing me lament the process of pulling poems out of our souls. No, I did not solve all of my writerly problems over the span of a few weeks—how would I be able to struggle creatively through life if I had already solved one of life’s most important obstacles—but I found a way to force myself back into a routine that I hope to maintain as I begin thinking about the months ahead. Join me for a brief exploration of my past month as I relate it to the future!
June is almost always a busy month for me, although I rarely work on the same thing in the same place for more than a week or two during the summer. Even though I changed my educational setting last year, this irregularity remained a truth this year, too, so I needed some practice to keep myself grounded no matter where I was working or what work I was attempting to accomplish—a strategy to force myself to sit down and write each day. This writing need not be anything large or consequential; the act of writing itself is what I hope will churn loose material into something more substantial that I might use in my real work. I am talking about ideas, of course, yet I am also discussing linking those ideas together to lead towards new destinations that I would only discover by writing through difficulties to new conclusions.
Poetry represents a novel way to forge those connections. I am one of those people who have always seen poems as succinct vehicles capable of tackling anything from the smallest realities specific to individuals to philosophies that govern our purposes for existing. That flexibility is a quality that I wish I could reproduce in my prose, but I am lucky if I can create a single turn-of-phrase that pleases me to the extent that every line of poetry should. I noticed as I sought those silky sentences throughout the month that my words needed to shine more and that I should aim for every arrangement of words to do that in every type of word I compose. With LexPoMo the added pressure of time forced my hand more than I would normally allow it, and since I chose to respond to events of each day as my inspiration for what I would write about, I found myself waiting until the end of the day to pull my lines together, which left me no time to revise beyond a few cursory read-throughs for clarity. While I accept the consequences of choosing to work late into the night, it has only been upon this reflection here that I understood the poetic aspect that I was looking for amongst my words was an intense integration of the perfect words that instantly connect with your reader. Once I know what I need to look for, I can build routines and habits around reaching that ideal the first time I write something.
And it is those routines and habits that I cast off over the years—and I need them again.
If I have learned nothing else through LexPoMo about myself, it is that I can thrive if I put those systems in place to support my writing even if the act itself terrifies me, like writing poetry often does. (I am not saying that any of my poems were actually good, but I still wrote a poem almost every day when I otherwise would have written nothing. I will share a link shortly that you can use to judge for yourself whether any of these poetic explorations are “worth” anything.) This entry, for example, served as the piece of writing that I focused on completing on my first day of July as I try to continue writing each day. I do not know what I will work on next, but I know I will identify the core work of what I want to do, write it, and continue writing it until I know it is complete in the form it most needs to take, be that a poem, project, or whatever.
If you would like to explore many of the talented poets who participated in LexPoMo, you can visit this link:
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