THIS IS MY ADVICE TO ANYONE WHO WANTS TO WRITE POETRY

/about consistency and sharing.

Familiarity breeds contempt and you might be tempted to feel that about your work too soon or later but let me tell you this…

Writing poetry is like the law of respiration
you take in oxygen
and you give out carbon dioxide
it’s an endless cycle of exchanging one energy for the other
you get inspiration
you put it out there
the universe bounces back an energy to you again
you put it out there again

you ask
do they like it?
do they not like it?
do they relate?
are they confuse?
are they getting too much?

You see that should be the least of your worries.
There are a lot of things you cannot control as a writer and of course the thing in consistent writing and sharing is that others may find contempt in there. It’s a human thing to get bored with “too much” but there are others who will not. For the latter, consistency is like an addiction. That’s what they will not be able to stand. It’s like opium. They will keep coming back to get it because it makes them feel all kinds of good!

There is something I always say
that, first I write for me
when my pen touches a paper
It is redemption for me
and when I choose to share
I am only inviting others to share in that redemption
I am not asking them to validate that belief
No, I have already exposed myself to that when I agreed to be vulnerable with my pen
It’s like salvation
you cannot control how it is received
you only hope people take away with
them the freedom it brings

So you get out there and surrender to your craft!

-Jo Nketiah