A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-Four-Hundred-And-Twenty-Four

I have been attempting to push myself to write different poems recently.  It is mainly that I felt a bit self-indulgent for a bit, as I found myself writing many poems that focused on personal complaints and venting.  I don't think that is always a bad place for a poem to begin, and I am sure there are poems I can think of from other poets that I think started out from that kind of space, but I felt like I was just stuck in that mode.  It didn't feel all that productive, at a certain point, not even so much in terms of my writing but also in terms of my own mental state.  While I don't write poetry as a personal process of self-discovery, I have to recognize that one of the important ways to grow as a poet is to continue to evolve as a person, and to be aware of the connection between my work and my own mind.  It has taken a long time for me to get to a place where I can do this work, and I want to keep going.  I don't know how easy that would be if the work remained stuck in that space forever.  I am not foolish enough to think that I won't return to those kinds of poems, of course.  It is natural, at times to need that release, and there can even be a place for such poems at times.

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