A Writer's Notebook, Day Eight-Hundred-And--Thirty-One

Today was the last day of my workshop with Tim Seibles, and I feel very recharged by the entirety of my experience at the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, though it was limited to an online event by the circumstances.  The week brought me many insights, and inspired me to push myself in more specific ways, to aim my work with greater consideration, as well as offering me tools for practicing and honing aspects of the work.  I feel, as well, that I see the landscape of my work in a new way, not only in terms of what I know is there, but in terms of what I am not doing and what I want to focus on improving.  I also feel ready to go deeper, and prepared to take myself in those directions in emotional and practical terms.  I think that working at such extremes of emotion, with elegies one day and odes the next, helped to realign some of my awareness of my work.  I know there is much more to be done, and I can feel part of myself stepping out from the shadows, though I still feel a reticence in myself.  It is a major thing to see my tendencies in this regard, to recognize the ways I hold back and step around things in my work, how I often hide without realizing it is what I am doing, and I feel certain that the awareness itself will lead to the dismantling of that block, if I foster that process.  I am excited about the work in a way that had been lacking, and I am feeling positive and prepared in ways that I had not felt in some time. 

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