creative writing

Quarantine – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment 
all the doors are shut (the windows too) and i've
never seen this town so empty

last week i forgot to buy milk, and this week i can't 
the grocery store became a barren wasteland

people aren't even bothering with tight-lipped smiles
stay six feet away, my mother reminds me

a walk in the park to escape my house only makes me 
feel more trapped. it's too quiet

i return home, back under a roof and between four walls
only to wish i was outside again

but the sun shines down, and i can feel its warmth
through the glass windowpanes

the palm fronds sway peacefully across the street
i want to join them in their lazy rhythm

in this loneliness, there is beauty

I hope you enjoyed this poem and are staying healthy and safe during these crazy times. I tried to bring a positive spin on the current situation in this poem, but I am still aware of the amount of tragedy and sickness people are experiencing right now. I wish you all the best.

Brooke

Rejection – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I have another poem to share with you all. I’m not sure if these unnecessary introductions are necessary at this point; this will probably be the last time that I’ll have this type of lead-in to my writing if it’s already clear from the post title what I’m sharing with you. Hope you enjoy 🙂

if rejection is one thing, it's versatile
with the press of a button, a few uncomfortable words
a shake of the head, a glaring mark in red pen
but it doesn't even hurt then

it creeps into your head, revealing itself in the form of
tears running down your pillowcase
nail-biting and head-scratching
just wondering how, and wondering why

rejection is a double-edged sword
you already know the how, and you want to 
know the why so you'll do better, be better next time
but once someone tells you why,

that's when it hurts.

Hope you enjoyed as always! Rejection is a natural part of life and everyone experiences it from time to time, so try not to let it get you down. I’ve been second-guessing myself a lot lately and feeling rejected in various ways, but it helps to write about it and get the feelings out. Also, I hope you all continue to stay safe and healthy in these tough times.

Brooke

June Gloom in March – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

I have another poem to share with you all today. If you’re new to my blog, you might not know that I live in southern California. We usually get some drizzle and gloomy days in spring, but the past week has actually been abnormally rainy; it was even rainier than our typical winter week this year. I’m usually a fan of the rain and cold weather, but it was off-putting when coupled with the school closure and coronavirus news. In light of everything that’s happening and the recent odd weather, the idea for this poem popped into my head. I hope you enjoy, as always.

the clouds are rolling in, as perfectly round and puffy as marshmallows
but as dark as an unfamiliar room at midnight
night strangles day too early, especially for this time of year
i light a candle and watch the first drop of wax melt but
the minuscule flame has already blown out- ominous, isn't it?

i've come to pray for actual darkness, not this false sense of security
from yellow-tinged lightbulbs and mere seconds of candlelight. if i'm going to sulk in the dark, leave me to it.

I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. What’s the weather like where you live? By the time this post goes up, it’s most likely back to blue skies and sunshine here, which only makes it harder not to go outside. Please feel free to leave a comment with some feedback or challenges for future writing as well- I’m definitely trying to channel my energy into writing while spending so much time at home 🙂

Brooke

Amidst the Chaos – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment

Welcome back everyone!

I have another poem to share with you all today. The best way I can describe it is it being my personal take on how crazy life has been lately, especially with the escalation of COVID-19 spreading and creating well, chaos. I’m sure a lot of us have felt life is more chaotic than usual at the moment, so maybe you’ll relate to this poem. I hope you enjoy, as always 🙂

it's a little odd to see my room spinning like this
my sea-foam green walls appear to melt, as if 
they represent my insides. i've felt this way before, 
but never in my own home.

it's scary when the place you've always gone
to calm down isn't safe anymore. it's scarier 
when there's no particular reason that it's not
"safe" and it just isn't. nowhere is.

i press my tongue to the roof of my mouth;
i squeeze the little fold of skin between my index
finger and my thumb, hoping to relieve the
pressure that i feel inside.

the bleak, white light streams in. everything
is still. just as the chaos began, it left.
luckily, it didn't take me with it.

I hope you enjoyed this poem, and I would love to hear some feedback from you guys. I’m always down to have a conversation with some fellow writers! And of course, I hope you all are staying healthy and safe out there. Please make sure to take care of yourselves.

Brooke

Away from Here – Poem by Me

Brooke4 Comments

Welcome back everyone!

I’m hoping I figured out how to format my poems so the lines are split as I intended them on here, so bear with me as I switch back to the “normal” formatting. Per usual, I have another poem to share with you all! The topic for this one kind of came to me out of nowhere; it was one of those poems where I just felt like writing and the words started to write themselves. I sincerely hope you enjoy.

growing up where the grass is greener only makes
the rest of the world feel grey. it's easy to get used 
to smelling the roses, but it's hard to leave. except 
maybe it's not. because i don't like this type of
perfection and i'm dying to get out of here but it's
hard because everyone looks at you like you're crazy
when you want to leave such a beautiful place

but all this place has taught me is to see the ugly
because no matter how amazing my home is
supposed to be, i can't let myself like it. that
would be acceptance, and i refuse to accept a life
here. i'm going to go far, far away. it's not an if, 
it's a when, how, and where

I believe the formatting worked out since I used the “verse” option- how perfect for poetry! If not, I’ll be trying something else out next time I post a poem. I would appreciate it so much if you wouldn’t mind leaving me a comment to give me some feedback on this poem, or thinking of a writing challenge for me to use in a future post! Thank you in advance 🙂

Brooke

Send Me A Writing Challenge!

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Forgive me, but today I have more of a request for you guys than a new post. If you’ve been reading for a while, you would know I’ve been sharing a lot of poems on here recently, as I love to write and I write poetry more often than any other form of writing. However, I’m looking to expand my horizons and challenge myself to write in different genres and different forms; of course I’ll still be posting mainly poetry on here, but I want to try some fiction and creative nonfiction as well.

That’s where you guys come in! I would appreciate it if any of you that have been reading my writing (and hopefully enjoying it) would leave me comments with some writing challenges. One blog similar to mine that I read had people give her challenges to write a poem or story including certain words in it, but I’m open to more than that. It can be as vague or specific as you want, as long as it’s appropriate and reasonable (an example of something unreasonable would be challenging me to write a novel or 20,000 words about a specific topic, for reference).

I think this would also be a great opportunity for me to interact with any fellow writers on here. I don’t have a lot of friends who write, and this is a cool way to share my writing with others, so I would love to get some responses from you guys on how you feel about my work. Additionally, I include this with most of my poems that I post, but I would love to hear some feedback or critiques on my writing if you have any. All of the poems I post on here haven’t been read or edited by anyone else besides me and whoever my blog readers are, so I would appreciate to hear your thoughts. I have gotten work critiqued online before, but not the poems I post here, so it could be an interesting new source of constructive criticism.

Thank you so much for being so supportive and sticking around to read my poems on this blog. I know I’m not the most experienced or polished blogger, but I love to write and I hope that shines through in my poetry, if nothing else.

Brooke

Eyes on You – Poem by Me

Brooke4 Comments

Hello everyone!

I have another poem to share with you all today. After I realized the formatting issues my previous poems had been having on here, I decided to try something new. I took a screenshot of a Word document with my poem on it, so I apologize if it’s weird to read the poem as if it’s a picture that you’re looking at. I’m trying to figure out what the best way is to share my poetry on here, so I’ll be experimenting with posting solutions for the next few poems I share. Thank you all for understanding!

I apologize for the awkward formatting again, and I hope you enjoy this poem. The idea of it came to me when I was in class- yes, when my chair squeaked as I moved around. I’m a squirmy person, and it’s something I’ve only realized in the quiet, working hours of school 🙂

Brooke

Clarification About My Poetry

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

This is sort of an apology, sort of a question, sort of just me acknowledging something I didn’t realize before. If you’ve been reading my blog for a little while, you’d know I’ve been posting a lot of poetry and creative writing lately. If you’ve been thinking my poems seemed oddly formatted, you’re probably not alone, and this was something I just became aware of.

Earlier today I was looking at my blog page as if I was a viewer, and I realized that my poems have been posting weirdly/in a different format than I intended. I guess it’s because the width of the paragraphs and text is different once published than it is in the WordPress block editor, but it definitely made the structure of my poems look different and divided the lines at weird spots.

If any of you guys know how to fix this or have any suggestions on how to fix it, please let me know. I’m considering just typing my poems into Word docs and then screenshotting it and posting it as an image into my post. I’m not sure if that would be a good solution or not, but I’ll figure it out before my next poetry post. I apologize for this oversight in the past, and now I’m even more thankful for the support I’ve received from my creative writing posts so far considering the formatting of my poems was off. Thank you all for being so supportive and kind as always!

Also, I would just like to say that I would LOVE your guys’ feedback on my writing. If you’ve been wanting to leave a comment or give me some suggestions on future topics to incorporate into my poetry, please let me know! I am always looking for suggestions from others and I also want to interact with the people reading my work. I’d also like to know if you guys actually liked the way my poetry has been formatted thus far- I haven’t really purposefully experimented with different formats for poems, but now it’s something I might look into.

Thank you all as always! Please let me know your thoughts on the issues I’ve brought up here, as it would be much appreciated 🙂

Brooke

My Plate – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

I have another poem to share with you. I was originally going to do a post pondering the question “do we rise to the occasion when we have busier schedules?” but I didn’t really know how to answer that, considering that for me it honestly depends on what that “busier schedule” looks like and the mental headspace I’m in. I can still do that post in the future if anyone’s interested and I figure out how to approach it, but for now I figured I would tackle it as I tackle most things, by writing a poem.

My Plate

i divide my plate into sections, just like how mama taught me when i was young, how i needed to eat the rainbow and have a little bit of everything for each meal. she told me i needed to incorporate all the food groups, and to eat everything i was served. it would be rude not to.

i give slivers of myself away, not even realizing until i’m left with one tiny portion of the plate still filled. i twirl my fork and mash up the remainders of all the food that was once there. it’s not really a rainbow- it’s a brown pile of mush, and the texture is questionable.

no amount is too much for me. i load up on everything imaginable, everything available, whether i like it or not. it doesn’t really matter though, because i’ll give it away as soon as someone asks, only regretting it because of the sound my knife makes as i scrape it away.

all my utensils are still lined up perfectly on the table. sure, there’s a little brown mush on them, but who cares? certainly not me, as there’s no food left on my plate. they’re no use to me anyway.

I hope you enjoyed this poem. Thank you for all the support in my writing endeavors 🙂

Brooke

Doubting You – Poem by Me

BrookeLeave a comment

Hello everyone!

Today I have another poem to share with you. Per usual, it’s another topic I considered discussing on my blog in a more opinion, sharing-my-thoughts type of post, but figured I could express better in creative writing. I’m so thankful that my poetry has been well-received on here, so thank you guys again for being supportive and allowing me to feel comfortable posting my vulnerable thoughts on the Internet. It’s like a tiny corner of support and I love it 🙂

Doubting You

it’s Friday night and I’m in my room, waiting for you to call it’s getting late and I don’t really expect to hear my upbeat ringtone play and see your face light up my screen anymore. I’m always ready for the worst, ready for you to let go but I get that way with everyone. it’s not you, it’s me. a classic cliché, I know- it’s used differently here though. I’m not breaking up with you. I’m assuming you’re breaking up with me. and it would be my fault, right? because in this world everything is. I’m doubting you because I doubt me. when you even doubt yourself, who can you rely on?

I know this was a short one, but you can probably tell most of my poems are pretty short. I wanted to touch on the topic of self-doubt and how insecurities can prevent you from having genuine relationships with others. I think it’s funny how I write a lot about love and relationships and I could not be more single, but it’s what pops into my head. Typical teenage stuff, I guess.

Please, please, please leave suggestions for future creative writing or feedback on this poem/any of my writing I’ve posted in the past. I would love to get some inspiration from you guys since you’re the ones reading it here.

Brooke