Poetry and Embarrassment: The Unlikely Partners in Growth and Self-Exploration
Over the past year, I’ve been contemplating the importance of poetry quite a bit, and what better time to share my thoughts than National Poetry Month! Let me start by saying I am in no way an expert on this topic, nor am I a talented poet. Although I read plenty of poetry in my day-to-day life, I didn’t try my hand at writing it until I was forced to for a college course last summer.
I was incredibly nervous when it came time to share my first poem.
I worried that people would judge me and my writing. I was hyper-focused on how my peers would perceive and evaluate my poetry. Ultimately, I was sick to my stomach when I clicked submit.
Now, this may or may not come as a surprise to you, but nobody made fun of me. On the contrary, my classmates were kind and genuinely excited about reading and discussing each other’s poems. It’s almost as if people aren’t always looking for, or concentrating on, my faults!
My apprehension slowly evolved into excitement with each new assignment. I stopped spending my writing process worrying about what people would think and, as a result, was able to dive deeper into unleashing my unconscious mind without fear of judgment.
Sharing poetry inspired an interconnectedness between my classmates and me. A sense of community was born as we were taken out of our isolated little worlds and shown a larger picture of the human experience. Through this course, I gained confidence in myself and an understanding of the hundreds of other worlds being experienced by others.
I continued writing poetry even after the class ended.
The act of sitting down and writing turned into a practice in mindfulness and self-exploration. It was my time to loosen up and let everything out in a healthy, creative way. We are forever changing, and it can be a challenge to keep up; poetry allows us to reflect, dream, reminisce, actively observe, and fantasize through all of these little evolutions.
When creating any sort of art, you invite the potential of negative evaluation, the foundation of embarrassment. Poetry is no different, and sharing that poetry with the world can be terrifying. But, lucky for us, embarrassment makes us better humans. It opens up the opportunity for us to push past our comfort zone, tackle ambitious goals, and put ourselves in the position to fail (sometimes publicly.) The threat of embarrassment lives at the edge of our comfort and experience, and that is also where we grow best. If I never convince you of anything else, please let me convince you to choose growth over a desire for safety.
Want to give it a try? I’ll make it easy for you by giving you two of my favorite writing prompts. If you’re feeling brave or, even better, if you’re feeling scared and embarrassed, I’d be excited to see you share what you write with us. Email us at general@beniciamagazine.com or tag us on Instagram if you post it for your friends to see. Maybe you’ll inspire someone else to grow too.
Prompts:
- Go to a bookstore or library. Visit seven different sections and choose a single book from each (science fiction, classics, history, etc.) Grab the first book and flip to a random page. Write down the first word that you see. Repeat this for each book. Using these seven words, write a poem.
- Listen to one of your favorite songs and write a poem directly after, based on the feelings and emotions it brought about in you. Let music inspire poetry!
Last month we asked our readers to submit some of their own poetry for us to share. These are just a few of the amamazing submisssions we received! Head over to our Instagram for a look at the rest.
Ready. Set. Slow
A severance of self
Division of duty
Purveyor of passion
Searching to be sought
Sowing estranged fields within
Scrubbing away subservient ways
No convoluted catharsis
Nor timetable on tomorrows
Coronary coordinates, course is set
Tarry no longer, lest we forget
-ArmchairArgus
High on Gratitude
in the muck of news’ day platitudes
I’ve lost my cheery attitude
midst hate and anger screamed and spewed
what happened to beatitudes
but past these ugly, mindless feuds
beyond behavior simply rude
there is another world that can be viewed
in Nature’s holy latitudes
in this world outside our doors
flowers dance, birds sing, and oceans roar
a world that heeds not human news
where souls soar high on gratitude
-Tio Stib
Above the Strait
Flowing full and strong
A mighty strait gliding by
These golden pathways
Leading, gently, to insights
Found when gazing from the heights
-Scott
Listen to your heart
Listen to the wind
To the leaves swaying back and forth
To the birds tweeting
It may seem like a song
Close your eyes
Listen to the breeze
Bees buzzing
Listen very carefully
Imagine it is playing just for you
If you really listen you will find what really matters inside of you
-Jazmin Avila Brewster (Age 8)
The Adventure
Warm, delicate days rise in the East and set in the West
Waking up this morning, it’s time to find your quest
Grab shoes and a map
Scribble down an x and put on a cap
Walk down the roads, to a place filled with toads
Ribbit, ribbit, boing boing!
Ask your friend Sally to come and join
Hop on the back of a truck, and feed the ducks
Pieces of bread that you stole from Sally’s shed
Jump down on the ground, wave at the driver and walk around
Pick flowers for mom and stones for dad
Throw them in your backpack and hope he won’t get mad
Run down the hill, and plop on mud
The two of you wink and call each other bud
Dirty clothes, and wet socks
Stinky ovens, and ticking clocks
Home is safe, and safe is home
Twist in the air and sleep in your dome
Let the time take time
And dream of your day
Cause once you see it you think
Let’s do it again, but in a different way!
-Zolia (age 12)
Each Place Where Faeries Dance
The morning sky is not yet pink
When Sally’s Nana wakens her
Arise dear child and come with me
Let’s hurry down to join the birds
She passes coat and dungarees
With fingered lips and no more words
In silent steps each one descends the stairs
Then Nana speaks when they reach chilly air
Let’s stroll my garden walk
As waking flowers talk
We’ll visit every plant
And ask them to share secrets from
Each place where faeries dance
Sally gets an earnest look
And states her facts quite stubbornly
Oh, faeries are in story books
They’re not the same as you and me
But fearing feelings might be hurt
Can we still walk your garden please?
Then hugging Sally with both arms and eyes
Her Nana answers with a knowing smile
Let’s stroll my garden walk
As waking flowers talk
We’ll visit every plant
And ask them to share secrets from
Each place where faeries dance
We humans say that morning dew is water vapor chilled
But faeries know, they dip their toes, then paint with every twirl
I’ve strolled my garden walk
As waking flowers talked
I’ve queried every plant
And all have shared the secrets from
Each place where faeries dance
© 2021 Rick McElhany