poetry

I still remember the first poem I ever wrote. I was 6 and it went like this:

I am a cat.
I purr.
I sit on the mat.
I purr.
I eat some food.
I purr.
Yet, I am a stray.
No one loves me.
But still, I purr. And purr.
And purr.

Slightly morbid for a six-year-old, but my primary school teachers thought I was great. And I wrote it from the innocent heart of a little girl. I was not writing for anybody else, I was not trying to rhyme or be clever or funny. I simply put pen to paper and a piece of writing emerged.  I was honest.

I continued to do this writing-in-the-moment thing throughout my childhood and teenage years. None of this plan and draft and change and then write stuff they teach you in school. That is helpfull for writing fiction. But good poetry is from the soul, and in the moment.