I miss writing

Recently, Grace invited me to write a guest post for her blog on “What Inspires You?” The topic really did get me thinking, and even inspired me further. One of the things I wrote about was writing itself. I’ve always been incredibly inspired by writing, and by words. I’ve grown up on poetry, and I feel like I’ve always had the natural gift of being able to spin words into poetry and poetic prose. Poetry has always been my escape, my way of letting go of my deepest emotions. It’s cathartic, and it allows you to let go of frustration and confusion.

Writing clears things up for me. Even when my thoughts are all jumbled up in my brain, everything begins to appear so much more clear once I actually take the time to write them out. But best of all – I love going back to my writings after a while and reading them after months or even years. And then, it is amazing to me how much my words form a snapshot of my feelings and thoughts at the moment. Reading my past poetry or prose really brings me back to that exact moment in time. It’s a frozen slice of time, and I often feel like I’ve stepped into an faded photograph, made bright and new again by my words. My writing jogs my memory much better than even pictures can, because it captures not just an outward image but the inner spirit of that moment.

But I miss writing. It seems odd to say on a blog, especially as I have been writing quite prolifically here. But this isn’t writing to me. It is more like journalism, and there is a difference. What I blog about here sometimes saps my creativity, sometimes boxes me in to news stories and political science and human rights articles. Of course, these are things I am passionate about and care about. But at the same time, it does not allow me to really tap into my creativity. It makes me feel like I am a reporter, and that is a very different writing style. And when I read my old entries, there is no dimension of emotion, nostalgia, or memory. It is almost dispassionate, even while I am writing about an issue I clearly care about. It is, after all, not personal. This blog is not about me. It is about the world, and my observations of it. 

And I have not written a poem in months. Because I spend my days reading various blogs about human rights, the news, Brazen Careerist,  and Twitter. I joined Tumblr in hopes of reinvigorating my creative self, but it hasn’t worked. Because in order to write poetry, I have to read poetry. And that, I haven’t had the time to. Perhaps that will be my next goal – to make more time for creative writing. Because in the end, I miss it….a lot.

Related posts:

1. Can we make an impact through writing?
2. My guest post on “What Inspires You?”
3. Blogging for Jolkona