How To Be A Poet

Notice that your thoughts are prompts for poems

Take those thoughts and gift yourself the pleasure of putting them on the page

Let yourself see that you get to live twice when you are a poet: once when you experience the piece and again when you write it down

Walk barefoot in the tall grass and let the calluses layer more on the balls of your feet with every step

When the wind whispers in your ear, listen to her, then write it down

Excavate the dark spaces in your belly rather than the cobwebs that have formed in the past from neglect

Hold eye contact with the stranger passing you for one second longer

Know that heartbreak can fuel writing faster, but love can fuel writing longer

Listen for the noises behind the blaring ones- listen for her quiet breath in the early hours of the morning - listen for the yawn of the dog in the other room - listen for the veins within you that is a river flowing through your entirety

When tears come, don’t try to stop them, but welcome them. Notice how they hold a different weight and speed. Ask them what emotion they are expelling from your heart today.

Relish in the beauty that your words are where your heart comes out of your body

Relish in the beauty that the more you write, the less you know

Relish in the beauty that the more you write, the more you love

Relish in the beauty that the more your pen hits the page, the more your heart cracks open

Relish in the beauty that you are actually not a poet, but a poem in the making