I still am struggling with a lack of inspiration and motivation—the day slips by without me even starting what I had intended to finish. So much is terrible that it is difficult for me to find a quiet enough space inside to create something of my own.
Now it seems impossible to not echo the loss and rage all around (and feel guilt at my fortune in not losing anyone or being targeted). I recently wrote a poem that tried to explore some of the history of racial injustice in the US but instead sounded as if I were appropriating other people’s pain, and some of the language and imagery I used did not match my intention.
I am lucky to have friends who can read and point out my mistakes and offer me guidance, but of course I am responsible for ensuring I don’t appropriate another person’s experiences and that I don’t center myself in other people’s struggles.
I also don’t want to feel as if I am mining my own pain just for a poem to show off as if it were some trendy piece of jewelry, nor do I want to trap myself within my own trauma and erase all the joys I also experienced. Or forget that I survived. I found comedian Hannah Gadsby’s “Nanette” and “Douglas” to address these issues brilliantly.
Likewise I found Gaia Rajan’s poem “Inside Every Poem You Can Hear Muffled Screams” to be incredibly powerful and insightful. I know I will come back to it again and again.
Your prompt is to write a poem in which you free yourself within the poem from the cage you already escaped.
Bonus prompt: imagine spilling your guts and out came flowers and herbs.