Poem For Your Thoughts?

Poem For Your Thoughts?

by Brooke Harrison

photograph: Pinterest

Poetry and I have a long history. 

I loved any excuse to write poetry for school. For me, that was the best writing assignment you could get in English class. Whenever there was a poetry competition I always got way too into it and little me poured everything (me trying to over-dramatize my crushes as deep, intense longing) into those poems. Big shocker: my poetry didn’t win. 

I started truly appreciating poetry when I got put onto Rupi Kaur’s poetry books around my sophomore year of high school. 

I have every poetry book she’s ever published; they’re filled with rants, questions, underlining, and drawings. She completely opened my eyes to a whole new way to write poetry (no more iambic pentameter). 

After my first summer back home from college, I started writing poems as a way to cope with my emotions. My dad and I don’t have a good relationship and most of my poems have to do with a lot of anger and disappointment I have towards him.

When I was home I started taking out my phone mid-argument to open my notes app to write a poem. It was probably rude to take out my phone mid-fight (if you knew him you would laugh), but processing my feelings by writing them down in real time was one of the most cathartic experiences I’ve ever had. 

I don’t think I’m a poet by any means but it’s so interesting to read my poems back and to truly feel the anger, the sadness, the disappointment in the way I write. It takes me back to certain memories and makes me reflect.

There have been times when in the middle of writing a poem I have an emotional breakthrough, as if it forces me out of my inner thoughts and feelings. 

Poetry has provided me with a space to feel free and where I can be as honest as possible. The poems I write come from a place of needing to expel these feelings as if I’m desperately trying to paint the picture of the inner workings of my heart and mind. 

I’ve only written romantic poetry about two people in my life. One was close to a year-long situationship and looking back most of those poems were based on love bombing and delusion. The other is the guy I wrote about in a past article, my long game, and those poems might be too real. 

I view poetry as more sacred now; when I write about someone they have to truly mean something to me. I’ve deleted most of the situationship ones because I think they sound insane now looking back, but I don’t think I can ever delete long game’s poems. I don’t want to delete the poems of someone who made me feel like that. 

When I write poems it’s as if I can silence the thoughts in my head by transferring them over to paper. 

It grants me permission to articulate everything I need to say, even if I don’t know I need to say it. 

Sometimes Always love,

Brooke