Welcome to another poetry focused post! Today’s topic features Natasha K and how poetry can help find your voice.
I have a guest come and post on my blog each month talking about poetry so be sure to check out all the Exploring Poetry posts in the series and follow for more!
Natasha is a poet, writer, and host of the Micro Musings podcast, where they explore creativity, self-expression, and the art of poetry. Through their writing, Natasha delves into themes of love, identity, and personal growth, resonating with a community of hopeless romantics and creative souls. They are passionate about fostering a safe space for readers and listeners to feel seen, heard, and inspired.
Natasha K – Finding My Voice
How Poetry Helped Me Find My Voice
I first found poetry at 15. It was nothing more than a temporary solution, a necessary stepping stone in my road to releasing a novel. My writing was decent but it was missing something, that show, don’t tell detail. After scouring the writer’s Internet, I decided to pick up poetry to develop my imagery and combat the dreadful White Room Syndrome. Little did I know, it would change my life.
For me poetry is the art form of conveying everything–environment, emotion, action, and impact– in a directly ambiguous way, leaving some things up to the imagination of the reader.
However, my early work did not exactly follow this ideology. It began as a way to silently process the emotions that were so overwhelming that I felt like they were ruining my life. I was so immersed in my own world, trying to navigate my emotions after years of suppressing them due to believing no one cared.
What started as unsent letters airing my grievances turned into Insta-poetry style stanzas. It was cathartic! Writing allowed me to discover what I really knew and I really felt about a situation. Though I hadn’t found a way to name the feelings as they came up, I had gotten comfortable sitting with them and allowing my body to feel them all.
As time went on and I began to experience college life, my writing style improved. I read more to expand my vocabulary and find new ways to describe things. I studied forms and modern contemporary poets whose voices related to mine. Then it happened. My first real heartbreak.
I spent nine months in an on again, off again toxic relationship where we were both naive with childish ideas of love. During that time, I couldn’t speak up for myself for fear that everything I said would be twisted and manipulated to be used against me. My only solace was the pages of poetry I would write to define all that I was feeling. There I could comfortably speak up for myself without fear of backlash.
After that situation, I continued to write whenever I was overwhelmed or upset. I would jot out all of my thoughts and sort them into pretty lines so that I could be in touch with myself. And it worked. Slowly the time between an incident occurring and the time it took me to address the other person decreased.
In the moment, I never saw this progress but looking back, I’ve grown immensely. Poetry helped me to end my emotional suppression and improve my interpersonal communication making me not only a better friend and partner, but also a better writer. The words began to flow easier when I stopped resisting out of fear of what I might say.
When you write from a place within, you shed light on all the darkness that you hide and all the shadows that you deny. You heal yourself with every word scribbled onto the page and become so in tune with who you are meant to be that it becomes natural to speak/write/communicate from a place of authenticity.
Poetry helped me find the courage to trust myself. My thoughts. My feelings. I no longer focused on how the audience would receive my message, be it my lover, my friends, or my family. Rather, I honed in on what I had to say and why. Giving myself permission to be me in my work opened up the door to finding out what my inner voice sounds like without the heavy pollution of everyone else’s opinions.
Poetry gave me the tools I needed to not only live in, but also discover my truth. By consistently writing, I built trust in my voice to be able to describe my experiences without allowing them to define me.
Now I write from a place of fullness to help others find the words they wished they said in hopes that they don’t feel alone in their life journeys.
Thank you, Natasha K! Readers, have you found your voice through poetry?
Did you know I’ll be presenting on how to spark your poetic creativity? Join me Sunday March 16th 1pm in room 134 at the Indiana Comic Convention! Filk Into Poetry – Using Speculative Elements to Spark Poetic Creativity.
Also, if you write poetry don’t miss the spring contest for Poetry Society of Indiana. Open to poets everywhere, and there’s prizes!
