I’ve been going back through my poetry archives (Google Drive) and have unearthed some real winners dating back as early as 2015. I’ve also been confronted with my 20-something penchant for drama and obsessiveness when it comes to romantic love. I feel a bit too embarrassed right now to share the the most flagrant offenders, but one piece in this suite, “I want to be reincarnated as your lucky object,” penned in 2018, is certainly walking a lovesick sad-girl edge (and I dig it!)
In my current writing life, I’ve been grappling with the limiting belief that my “good days are behind me.” When I was at Kenyon I was immersed in weekly writing workshops, attending office hours with esteemed professors, publishing in student-run publications, and submitting to literary journals. After graduation, my writing and publishing fell off as I jumped headlong into a career in outdoor education. As I’ve re-entered my writing life with greater commitment, I’ve wondered: “Did I peak in college? Do I not have ‘it’ anymore?”
And while I still work with this doubt regularly, the evidence seems to point to: Nope. My older poetry certainly pulls some fast-ones: villanelles, sestinas, dense af imagery, racier content. And yet, while it might sound treacly and cliché, those poems really do lack some depth, gravitas, livingness-of-life-iness that my newer work possesses. I’m learning it’s helpful to research myself once in a while to make sure I’ve got the facts right ; )
So, here are a couple poems from my archives. I have doctored them up with the current vision and tastes of 2024 Emily, but the bones remain.
Thanks, as always, for reading,
yours,
Em
I really love these, especially Grown Woman Prayer. Super powerful stuff Emily. I love seeing what you're up to in life these days!
These are wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing. Interesting to imagine the change over the time you wrote this