Author: Brooke

My Experience At The Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference

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Hello everyone!

Today I’m going to be talking about the amazing experience I had attending the virtual Sewanee Young Writers’ Conference. Although I’m disappointed I did not get to experience the conference and meet all the lovely faculty and writers in person, I am so thankful to have been a part of it virtually and I still grew a ton as a result. If you can’t already tell, this is going to be somewhat of a gushing post. Keep on reading if you want to find out more about the conference!

For reference, I was in a poetry workshop. Each workshop group had seven young writers and a faculty member, and we were in those individual groups for a few hours a day (the bulk of the workshop). We had joint classes with the other poetry workshops a couple times, and there were activities with all workshop groups such as optional evening classes on more niche topics (love poems, found forms, etc).

I had never workshopped a piece before, so going through the workshop process with my group was really helpful and interesting. We each workshopped a poem that we read in front of the whole conference on the last day, and I felt so empowered throughout the whole process.

Daily workshops consisted of reading poems and essays and discussing them in our groups, with a writing prompt to complete during our lunch break. Similarly, we’d have short homework assignments that were usually just revising our work and/or reading a couple short pieces and annotating them. The selection of authors and works that we read were diverse and really, really amazing in my opinion. I definitely fell in love with a few new writers.

At first I was intimidated by the talent of the other people in the workshop and my group, but as I got more comfortable I realized we were all there to learn and grow. Everyone had their strengths and the things they wanted to work on in the workshop, and it was awesome to see my work grow as well as everyone else’s in such a short period of time.

Even though it’s tough to get to know strangers across the country over Zoom, I feel like we did a pretty good job in connecting. I guess sharing pieces of writing about the most vulnerable parts of yourself and your life will do the trick for that. 🙂 I loved my group. And after listening to everyone at the end-of-conference reading, I knew for sure that these were some of the most talented people I’ve ever met. They’re definitely on track to do big things!

I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to attend a workshop like this and work on my writing on a more serious level. It opened me up to different types of writing and exploring different themes in my work, digging deep within myself. I had so much fun meeting new people and listening to their work, and discovering and reading works by writers I hadn’t been exposed to before.

I hope you enjoyed this little anecdote about my experience! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have– I know I didn’t go superrrr into detail about everything. I encourage you to apply next year, whether it ends up being virtual again or in person! Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

Online Goodbyes – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
I never got to see your faces in person; only the
little boxes on my laptop screen. I paid attention

to your backgrounds; the different colors of everyone's
walls, dressers or stacks of books behind you. 

Why does it feel like I'm letting something so real go,
when it never existed face-to-face? If only we got

to go to the mountains, see the sunset, watch the
fireworks together-- all in a place I've never been.

Maybe next time. But for now, it's time to log off.

This is a short poem regarding my writing workshop being online instead of in-person this summer. I already miss it. A post detailing my experience will most likely be up next week, in case anyone’s interested. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay safe and healthy out there.

Brooke

It’s Different Now – Poem by Me

Brooke2 Comments 
There's a mask on my desk, two masks in the center console
of each of my parents' cars, a mask in my bag, a mask in 

my mother's purse. New accessories for new times, a band-aid
for the giant wound our world is suffering. Don't forget your

mask, my mom reminds me each time I leave the house. And 
I forget, a lot. Not because I don't think it's important to wear

it, but because how is this our reality? Six feet apart lines in 
stores, a growing death count on the news that never stops

flashing the 'Breaking News' banner because there's always
something new going wrong, schools and businesses shut

down. But there's more. Kids zooming down the street on
bikes and scooters, friendly strangers waiting to lend a hand.

If we have to do this, let's do this together. The slivers of good
will become rays of sun that eventually outshine the bad, and

we will win.

I hope you enjoyed this poem! I was trying to have a more optimistic spin on the craziness and second waves of COVID-19 going around right now. Please feel free to leave feedback and writing challenges in the comments. Stay healthy and safe out there.

Brooke

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

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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