I started writing in prep school, and was one of the only students to ever win the Payson-Bird Prize, (for Excellence in English Composition), as a freshman. The professor who gave me the award was an alumni of both Cambride and Oxford, and while I never took his encouragement seriously, he nonetheless saw something special in me at that young age. I wish I had listened to him more intently, but I had too many other interests, (music and girls the most pressing), and I didn't start writing again "seriously" until the Fall of 2016, and joined The Soup in December of that year.
Since then I have enjoyed this community and grown a great deal as a writer, and more importantly, made a number of wonderful friends, for who I am truly thankful. I have been to many other similar sites, but found this one to be the best for me. I try very hard to create original metaphor and fresh, unusual imagery, but do so in ways that make SENSE. I find poems that are stuffed full of "big" or fancy words for the sake of sounding articulate or "deep", to be of little import and interest, but unusual words used in creative and unique ways can be a bonus to good writing, (most intelligent people know the difference).
In contrast, using simple words in unusual ways can be equally as beautiful and unique, and there is an art to that style of application as well, and for those reasons words themselves are fascinating to me. I believe I have been given a gift that enables me to put those words together in ways that elicit emotion, but that the creative intuition and acumen that transforms those elements into beauty and poetic excellence, is something that comes from withOUT - that we are all just tools for a higher power, and that staying in tune with that energy is critical to creativity.
I hope you'll take a moment to read some of my poems, and please leave a comment, if you would be so kind. Blessings!