Month: August 2020

Take A Walk – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Over footprinted sand and through unmowed
grass, on top of cracked concrete and in the
middle of freshly paved streets, we keep on 
walking. 
If our feet grow tired and gnarled, we will
walk slower, but walk nonetheless.
Never stop moving-- it keeps you young.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I find so much peace in my (almost) daily walks, and I think the message to always keep moving is an important one, both mentally and physically. Although some recent obstacles have come my way with remote learning and family issues, the reality is that everything will work out. It always does 🙂 Feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

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Wishing For Loneliness – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
I wait for the day that there's no one 
in the passenger seat, when there's 

freedom in silence and going to the store
or to lunch to meet up with a friend,

but not an obligation to sit in the car
and make small talk, or pick the right

songs on the right playlist. These seats
are comfortable, the leather creased

and every adjustment made to the right
angle, but you can only sink in and 

fully enjoy it if you're alone, just for
a little while.

I hope you enjoyed this little piece! I’m writing this the night before my driving test, so wish me luck. Hopefully I can have this experience driving alone very soon 🙂 Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

5 Things I’ve Learned In The First Week of the Remote School Year

Brooke2 Comments

Hello everyone!

I started my junior year of high school on August 19 and am sitting down to write this after the first (half) week of school. There’s already been quite a few ups and downs, and this is definitely going to be an interesting year for everyone. I’m going to share five things I’ve learned thus far, so keep on reading if you’re interested in hearing about my remote learning experience.

  1. Patience is key. I know this might seem obvious, but it’s SO necessary that I need to include it anyway. As you might have heard from teachers and other staff, it’s difficult on their end too. We all have to be understanding and adaptable, as that’s what this situation is all about. Expect bumps in the road and that you won’t always be prepared for everything coming our way, but be willing to work past it.
  2. The phone needs to be out of sight. This might not be as much of a self-discipline issue for everyone, but I’ve found that I’m way more focused if my phone is away from my desk. I’m not even tempted to look at it or noticing notifications pop up if I can’t see it on my surface at all. There’s already so many possible distractions on a computer/whatever device you’re distance learning on, so extra devices definitely need to be put away.
  3. Zoom can be awkward, but it gets better if you actually participate. I used to be terrified of Zooms and having to speak before I did my writing program over the summer that was run completely on Zoom. That’s helped me so much in this distance learning already–although it was a completely different experience, getting comfortable with Zoom and being able to interact with people I only knew through the screen has made me more confident to participate in my Zoom classes.
  4. You have to reach out if you want to actually interact with your friends. There’s not a virtual equivalent to lunchtime or just walking from class to class with all your friends. Make sure to check in on your friends and see how their virtual learning is going, and just interact as normally as you possibly can.
  5. This is a very independent journey. Try to make the best of it, as you would with anything else. This will impact everyone differently, and there may be different pros and cons of this experience for different people. It will definitely test us and make us stronger, so try to make the most of that. Challenge yourself, but also know when you need screen time breaks or when things are getting overwhelming. Use this time to figure out what works for you and how you can build your schedule a little differently.

I hope you guys enjoyed these few little tidbits of things I’ve learned so far! I will make sure to do an updated one sometime soon. Although I’m definitely still focused on coming up with new writing content, I think it’s important to include some education related stuff, as it is the beginning of the school year, and this will be a school year no one forgets. Please feel free to leave feedback in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Another Last Time – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
How many times are we going
to play this game? How many times
is life going to swing back around?
If only we knew, but I don't want
to know, because then it would be
clear when the last time will really come.
It's easy to say goodbye to the beach
and the pool and long days doing nothing
when you know they'll be back next 
year, but it's hard to say goodbye at all.

I hope you enjoy this poem! I can’t believe summer is over… even though quarantine’s been a long and crazy ride, the summer still flew by so quickly. Junior year, here I come 🙂 By the time you see this post, I’ll have already finished my second week of school! Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Humid Goodbyes – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
The air is thick with condensation and regret
that we chose to make our homes here when
we knew they'd fall apart eventually.
August's unforgiving sun beats down on us,
one last bout of humiliation before we admit
this wasn't the place for us and we need to leave.
Sweat trickles down the back of my neck, and my
legs, and the crooks of my elbows.
We knew it wasn't going to be pretty.

I hope you enjoyed this short poem! I am not a fan of the humidity, and the heat wave in California as I’m writing this (a week ago by the time it’s posted) is hitting me hard. What a way to end the summer, right? Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

I’ll Come Begging – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Repeated statements and one-sided
conversations, empty words, cutting
remarks, and awkward smiles.
All on the menu when we interact, 
not knowing what is genuine and
what is a joke between two people
bound by blood.
Guilt often settles in my stomach
like a bad lasagna dish at lunch,
but it only boils over to make
me angrier and lob pointed
insults I'll later regret. 
Don't expect me to come back and
mend what has been frayed for
so long, but don't expect me to 
go away.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! It was slightly longer than a lot of the pieces I’ve been posting lately, so that’s progress 🙂 Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Keep Moving – Poem by Me

Brooke2 Comments 
I miss when all we wanted
was for things to speed
up, the trees and melted sky 
blurring in the rearview
mirror. 

Climbing under tables 
in both restaurants 
and at home, 
unshaven, knobby legs 
running down
the streets and embracing 
the cuts and scrapes
that come with falling.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! My sixteenth birthday was a little while ago, and I’m kind of hitting a point where I actually wish time was slowing down a bit. I mean I don’t actually want it to slow down, but I can appreciate the childhood I so desperately wanted to fly by when I was younger. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Let’s Talk: Struggling to Finish Longer Poems

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today we’re going to be talking about something I’ve had difficulty with recently: trying to work on longer poems/longer pieces of writing in general. Most of the pieces I post on this blog are fairly short anyways, but even outside of blogging I’ve gotten stuck after writing the beginnings of a ton of different poems. It might be a result of my scattered brain at the moment, but there’s more to it than that. If you want to hear more of my thoughts on this, keep on reading!

First of all, I want to make sure I clarify that it’s completely fine (without a doubt) if you prefer to write short poems or if you prefer to write long poems or if you like writing everything/don’t have a preference, or if you don’t like to write poetry at all! This is just a short commentary on my recent experience with the length of my poems, since I’ve been posting short pieces almost exclusively.

There’s so much on my plate right now with the school year starting and trying to transition my other activities/responsibilities to a virtual or social distancing-friendly format, and I don’t have as much built-in time in my schedule reserved for writing right now. I’m not happy about it, but it’s what has to happen in order for me to get everything done and not rush myself with necessary tasks. As a result, I’m having little bursts of creativity throughout the week that I’ll scrawl down.

A lot of times, these bursts of creativity come in one or two lines, or an image I want to incorporate. I’ve been writing them on a fresh page of my notebook, taking them as far as I can before I lose my train of thought, and then just leaving them to sit until I can revisit them. By the time I can revisit them, it often feels disingenuous to engineer an ending to my thoughts, and I often want to leave them as they are, a few dainty lines dancing across the page with possibility.

Maybe the perfect endings to these ideas will come to me just as the beginnings did, but for now, I’m not really in a place where I can brainstorm and spend hours deliberating on what direction to take the pieces in. I’m missing my summer writing workshop and the hours we spent discussing and cultivating writing… regardless of that, I don’t want to stop writing until I have time to work on it more seriously, as writing keeps me sane and is sort of a coping mechanism even when I can’t do it as much as I would like to.

In the first phases of quarantine, I had sooooo much time to write and think and edit and deliberate on more writing, and I kind of miss that. Isn’t it crazy how different our quarantine situation has become over time? I would love to hear your thoughts on this and what your writing headspace/situation is at the moment.

Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. I would love to hear from you! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Flash Flood – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
There are many things that don't stop
when you ask them to, and tears are 
one of them.

They flood the streets, leaving me 
stranded with my emotions and too
much time to think about them.

I'll watch them carry away what
I took for granted as stable, 
nothing left behind or visible.

Sound the alarm, get to high ground--
there's no guarantee when the 
waters will calm again.

I hope you enjoyed this piece! I know I said I’d try to have some longer poems in the works but I struggle to finish them…I’d love to hear your thoughts on that and possible prompts/challenges/inspiration in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there!

Brooke

Invisible Hug – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
Six feet apart with no physical contact,
I wish I could at least feel your warmth,
have the wind swirl around me and the
air feel comfortably hot, just for a moment.
The way a warm night tickles your bare 
skin, the Earth telling you "I love you"
over and over again.
Let's both imagine it right now, let
the heat seep into our skin-- we can feel
the same feelings.

I hope you enjoyed this short piece! I cannot believe summer’s coming to an end; although that wasn’t directly addressed in this poem, I feel like it kind of relates. I hope you all had wonderful summers. 🙂 Feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there. Fall’s around the corner!

Brooke