Poetically Charged Newsletter, The Secret To My Prolific Writing
Poetically Charged Newsletter, The Secret To My Prolific Writing
Sitting at an in-person workshop over the weekend a bit ago, I heard what I'd been told a lot. "You're one of the most prolific writers I know."
It's true, not something I try to step outside the compliment or over-explain that I can't possibly be prolific because "I'm not that." I am a prolific writer in poetry or any other form I choose to write within. I've been this way since I started as a kid. But, in the same sense, I have had years go by where I've stopped writing anything.
What is the difference between the two?
Safety.
Safety makes it possible for me to write and more accessible for me to access my thoughts.
I am not safe if I'm constantly surviving or hiding what I'm writing.
I've had this situation. Where my writing is discovered and uncovered by those, I'd rather not have them read it. Because honestly? I want them to take it the right way. And not all my thoughts are praise; I went through many things silently because I'd share what happened, and it never stopped what was going on. I never had anyone rescue me, and I was fighting back or keeping my perpetrators from taking more from me.
I was told by someone that I couldn't ever be an author. I could never be published because I refused to share my writing with them. They weaponized my words against me, then wondered why I stopped writing to protect them from finding it.
Sometimes I don't have that external safety force going on. It's internal. I don't feel safe enough to dive into what's happening and be okay to make it on another side. I'm still determining where I'll go. I won't be able to get back from it and be "okay enough," which can lead to a silence of writing.
It's okay not to write. It's okay to have dry spells and come back to it. Your writing is always waiting for you. Your creativity never leaves you, even if you don't nurture it. It still loves you despite not being able to talk to you.
Even when I'm not active in a way, you can see me I'm still writing. Just like that workshop, I went to and wrote about over ten pieces. Many of these were my mental highway method, aka— my internal inspiration without prompts.
But, I used pseudo prompts in overhearing conversations for some of it. Some of the conversations that every single one was turned into a piece:
"There you go."
"Please, mom."
"You need to find a passion or something like that."
"You need to make a new muscle memory."
There were all just briefly grabbed and overheard conversations between strangers. I generally used the conversation I heard as a title and then led into how that would be a poem.
Writing while moving is a different poem than a stagnant, still poem. It has an energy behind it, a force, a current that you can't help but to feel. I've always loved movement-based writing, where I walk, feel the thoughts and ideas, and either keep moving and writing simultaneously or find a bench and let it talk to me.
The last time I did a movement-based workshop, it was dancing and then writing, and I was more blocked. The poems that came through were okay, but I wanted something else. This is a problem I have with trying to physically write a poem than writing it through typing. For some reason, my handwritten poetry is more basic, doesn't dive as deep as I want, and I often feel a blockade of where to go.
Creativity is such a beautiful, powerful magic we have. It is always a part of us whenever and wherever it shows up. It never leaves or abandons us. Sometimes, it just gets quiet with the loudness of the world and the urgency of jobs, work, surviving, and the world's speed. Sometimes slowing down allows us to hear it better. Or sometimes slowness, not producing anything, gives us a break to enable that well to rebuild back up. There is no right or wrong way of writing. Getting up at 5 am to write is valid, writing at midnight is good, and sometimes just writing little one-line ideas/starting off a poem, is still a poem.
My next workshop is with Guerilla Poets on March 2nd at 6 pm CST / 7 pm EST with Writing For Wellness, and then next week, March 10th, with End the Stigma at 5 pm CST / 6 pm EST. March 2nd at 6 pm CST / 7 pm EST will be the "Tell me I'm good because I'm not" poetry workshop. We will be using a poem to explore what goodness means and our chasing of being loved, and our need for connection.
End The Stigma, March 10th, 5 pm CST / 6 pm EST, will be: the "Honesty As Astonishment" Poetry Workshop. Details are below, but these are gonna be some interesting concepts for me to explore with you in this space. It's free and virtual. Come if you can.
What's going on with me that you can get into
I will have stickers coming that I drew the art behind them where the words are in my handwriting: "Weird Is Wonderful" with a Nautilus. I also have "Poetry is my love language/We are more than what we fear" in supermini, thumbnail-sized stickers. I didn't know they were such tiny babies, but I'm hoping to send them a February card for Patreon supporters (to be a supporter, here's this link: https://www.patreon.com/sarahmentalpoet). If you are a supporter and want happy poet mail, send me your address! I'd love to thank you with a cute card and my little weirdo stickers. Also, I'd like to open an Etsy shop or feature them on my site for you to buy. They are hand-drawn pieces, and I am pretty tickled as a peach to create them and have them be portable. We got biggies of "poetry is my love language" and a sweet miniature nautilus painting I did with Carson and my visit with them.
Since the New Year Is Here and I'm an indie/local creator, my merch is here: https://sarahbellummental.com/merch/ and includes "Consent Is Sexy / Turn Life Into Poetry / Poet Doing Poet Things, etc." shirts and things for you to get if you want a poetry themed gift for yourself or those you love. My books are all from indie publishers in New Mexico that published my two books, and their link is: https://sarahbellummental.com/pre-order-swallow-my-sparrow/
I did the thing! I did the thing by doing a workshop that can be worked around your schedule, and you can do it at your own pace. This is my newest: https://sarahbellummental.com/the-brightness-besides-us-poetry-workshop
Writing For Wellness, March 2nd at 6 pm CST / 7 pm EST, will be a "Tell me I'm good because I'm not" poetry workshop. We will be using a poem to explore what goodness means and our chasing of being loved, and the need for connection.
End The Stigma, March 10th, 5 pm CST / 6 pm EST, will be: the "Honesty As Astonishment" Poetry Workshop. This workshop will be about making space for things and what that looks like, how our minds as writers create worlds we can exist within, what that means to be astonished by the simplest things, and how to write toward astonishment when mental illness keeps showing up.
What is SBM doing in their natural habitat??
Listening to: Set It On Fire, Blood Cultures, from the Spotify Discover Weekly Playlist (which will be a part of the March playlist “Set Shit On Fire.”)
Reading: Blooming Beyond The Boundaries by Khaotic (the best packaging for poetry books EVER! What a gorgeous gift to open up with this beaut.)
I am getting ready for: my workshops! Who the fuck knew they were coming up so quickly? And two in one month? Crazy, I'm trying too hard.
So, I came down with some medical shit (what's new? Eh?), so I already was forcing myself with the break/downtime/don't do shit, making it even more imperative. I'll do what I can to offer as much as possible here, but it may be less this month because I can't do anything and need to fight this shit.
Thanks for being here! See you when I see you.