Month: July 2020

A Lonely Dance – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Will you all crank the music up and dance with me,
like we're not supposed to be six feet apart?

To listen to music from summers of years past,
when we were younger and worries barely crossed

our minds. Ignorance is not bliss, but let's pretend it
is for just this once. Pretend we don't know the things

we do, that we aren't growing up? And I know we 
didn't get the normal dance, under the tacky strobe

light in the gym with all our friends laughing and
bumping into each other, sweat dripping down our

backs, blisters forming on our feet even though we
switched our heels for sneakers after pictures. Let's

pretend there will be more dances, and they'll happen
soon. Let's pretend we don't know about the things

we don't want to, and that we do know everything will
be okay soon.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I’ve been in a nostalgic mood lately– with it being summer and all, I normally love listening to throwback songs. Pair that with my writing workshop ending, missing my friends… you get poems like this! Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

My Poetry Writing Process For This Blog

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to be giving a quick overview of my writing process for the poems I post on this blog. It’s a little different than my writing process if I’m writing poems for myself/for another purpose and obviously it’s somewhat similar to my normal blog post writing process (I’ve written a post on that before as well!) so I’m not going to go into too much detail. Keep on reading if you want to find out how I write the poems I post each week!

  1. Do the normal blog set-up. I figure out what I’m going to write a poem about based on inspiration/prompts/feelings from the day, choose my tags, find a matching picture on Unsplash.com, the works.
  2. Sometimes I come up with a title before writing the poem, and sometimes I come up with it after. I also might tweak it after finishing the poem– it all depends how much I have planned in my head when I start writing.
  3. I write the poem! I experiment with a few different structures of poems on here, but I start out just doing a free verse outline of what I want the poem to be. I try to get out all my thoughts quickly and edit them afterwards. I make sure to write it in the “Verse” block on the WordPress editor.
  4. I edit the spacing/line breaks of the poem to my liking.
  5. I check the poem for possible confusing lines or grammar mistakes. I honestly don’t revise my poems on this blog beyond that, as it’s kind of a spur-of-the-moment free write thing. I recognize that lots of the poems on here are far from perfect, but I think there’s something beautiful in that as well. Feel free to disagree: I fully believe there’s still a time and place for raw, unpolished writing, and on a small personal blog this is one of those places. 🙂
  6. I write the little blurb after the poem. Sometimes I’ll explain the backstory/inspiration to the poem, sometimes not. It depends on how much clarification I think it needs. I’ll also do my normal call-to-action asking for feedback and writing challenges, and send you off with well wishes.

That’s all there is to it! It’s definitely not as intense of a writing process as when I’m trying to write and polish a more serious, longer piece. I love getting creative on here and writing little image poems, but I do plan on posting some longer and experimental poems in the future. Please let me know if there’s other types of poems you would like to see me explore. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Things They Don’t Teach Us – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Nobody taught us how to feel, what to say--
we just did it, and we figured it out together.
You and me, always in it together. They don't
teach us how to fall in love, and they definitely

don't teach us how to fall out of it. If we had
learned to control our emotions, how to 
treat each other right, maybe everything would've
been different. But it's not, and trying to teach

ourselves these lessons is only a reminder that
we didn't know them in the first place. And it
was never love, but they didn't teach us that 
either. So we go along, now with the new 

knowledge we didn't have before, and we 
keep learning.

I hope you enjoyed this poem! It was another short one, but I’ve recently written a lot of longer poems for my writing workshop and it’s been fun to experiment with short poems again. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

California Summer – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Come visit me for the summer, and see what
the California heat's all about. I'll tell you I don't
understand it myself; I consider myself an observer.
Growing up here isn't really a choice (just like

anywhere else) even if some people would choose
it again. I, too, dream of beaches and cities, but I
don't visit them. I'd rather pretend I'm a tourist
like everyone else and contemplate what's out there.

I dream of something different. Maybe you will too.

I hope you enjoyed this poem! It goes with the poem I posted yesterday– my views on my home are definitely not glowing, but I definitely can see the appeal for people who’ve never visited, and I understand that lots of people love it. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Ode to the Clouds – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
i miss the clouds when they're not in front of the
sun. they make blue brighter, they bring excitement

to the tame California skies. everyone else thinks i'm
crazy for loving the rain; i guess that's why they live

in a sunny place and i want to leave it. please bring
the summer rain, the hot rain, the humidity-- anything

even though it is not winter. i want to feel it on my skin
before the seasons change again.

This is a super short poem, but I wanted to write something short and sweet about my feelings surrounding the current weather. I can appreciate the sun when I’m at the beach or swimming, but I honestly miss the cold weather. It stays hot for too long (in my opinion)! Please feel free to leave feedback or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Stargazing – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
we look up at the stars, like any other Friday night
something feels different- maybe it's the dizziness from
being up so high from this lookout point, maybe it's the 
dazzling lights of the city down below. who thought

our suburban town shined so brightly in the nighttime
hours. you don't speak, and neither do i. we might as 
well be strangers, just looking at the sky and letting
life happen to us, two separate narrative unfolding right

here, by the beat-up dirt path and your beat-up car while
we wear beat-up clothes and beat ourselves up in our
heads about how things just aren't the same anymore
and we don't know what we did to ruin them or more 

importantly, how to fix them

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I really want to go stargazing at a lookout point sometime this summer; I know there’s probably tons of them in southern California where I live, but I’ve actually never been to one. Please feel free to share feedback or writing challenges in the comments of this post. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

When The Crows Migrate Back – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
a flock of birds, blacker than the night
divebombing us as we walk. it's eighty degrees,

past eight o'clock, unusually warm as of late.
the crows always come back this time of year,

although i'm not sure where they disappear to
in those few months between the start of springtime

and now. i know, i know-- maybe i should just
do my research on bird migration patterns.

but i'm not fond of these birds, and how they
defecate on my mother's car so often. i only wish

to know how to make them leave for good. it's 
startling when they land right in front of my

window, and my rapping on the glass doesn't
faze them or set them off flying. maybe the crows

are just here to taunt me

I hope you enjoyed this piece! My neighborhood has a huge problem with crows around dusk about eight months of the year, and they love to poop on cars and windows during the day as well. It’s actually very odd, because the neighborhoods next to ours don’t even see them/have them come there. Please let me know if you have any feedback or writing challenges to share in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

A Not-So-Superficial Change – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
her hair tickled her shoulder, sharp
and blunt-cut like stray pieces of 
dewy grass mowed down on a Sunday
morning. it brought seriousness to her

baby face, the apple-round chin becoming
triangular with a second glance. she
felt bold, ready to walk through hot coals
and prove her newfound power, wield

it like a sword.

I hope you enjoyed this super short piece! I wrote a couple short little scenes and used them for inspiration for the last few (short) poems on here– if you prefer longer poems, don’t worry! I’ll have some posted soon. Please feel free to share feedback or writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Boxed In – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
a square we're all trapped in
prisoners and officers of our own jails

optional but it's for the best so we keep
ourselves two-dimensional in these little

black and grey boxes online and look
at the outside world from our windows with

light streaming in to remind us what we're 
missing. more boxes: we can't stop putting

ourself in boxes and finding more boxes
to put ourselves in.

I hope you enjoyed this quick little poem! It sums up my feelings about Zoom and missing in person interaction right now. My family has reverted to being extra cautious about leaving the house again now that California is having a second wave. Please feel free to share feedback and/or writing challenges in the comments! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Wandering in the Park – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
a cold park bench in the dead heat of July;
a rarity yet i wish there was someone beside

me to bring warmth back into my body
it's lonelier to be lonely in the summer

i feel like a china doll collecting dust as i sit
waiting for something that's not coming

so i walk around, take the long path by the
thick dewy grass that hasn't been mowed in 

weeks, and listen to your voice calling me 
in my mind

This was a super short piece, but I hope you still enjoyed it! I honestly stopped going to the park by myself since it’s a lot nicer to walk around with friends and family… I know it’s completely acceptable to go places by yourself, but quarantine loneliness is getting to me. Please let me know if you have any feedback on this piece or writing challenges you’d like me to share. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke