*THE EVOLUTION OF MY POETRY

 

What I like about pictures of evolution is the presence of the past images.  We all know what today looks like because we have mirrors and eyes.  But to remember what yesterday looked like and what we looked like yesterday... now that takes pictures, memories, archaeology and imagination.  There is value in looking at what we used to be, how we used to think and how we looked at life.  There is no need to erase the picture of "the fish", even though now "we have legs and can walk on land".  

I started blogging my poetry back in 2018.  That is five years ago.  In the last five years, I have undergone some amazing changes and that is what evolution is... change.  It is easy to see the  how the inspiration evolved over the last five years, just by perusing my blog.  I didn't erase any of the poems I posted, I just kept them there as evidence of who I was then.  

I wonder if the biggest danger of writing is committing thoughts to page and have them out in the world to define you.  Is everyone going to understand evolution? Probably not.  I think I can assume that there are those out there that still have a copy of my book and think that is how I view the world today.  And that book is fifteen years old.  

I can't erase the book, nor do I want to.  It was me back then, and me back then was as important as me now.  So I keep adding poetry, post after post and hope they can all get along in the same blog, even through some of them are very different.  Also understand that a poem I wrote a week ago, is not the same picture of me even a week later.  That is how evolution or change works.  We are constantly changing and what I discovered about myself last week, may need an upgrade again.  

Sometimes I look back at some of the things I wrote in the past and it helps me to feel confident in the evolutionary process of writing.  What I write need not define me any more than the moment in which I write.  And that is a beautiful thing!