Dark-or-Not

Look I made you some content. Daddy made you your favorite open wide. -Bo Burnham

I’ve been waiting about a month to say that with the correct context. It was a great motivator to get this project done. If analytics have a say in anything, it’s that consumers of my content prefer my poems over everything else that I put out.

You can find said content with this link

I grew up very sheltered and poetry was what saved me as a teenager. Cliché, but Shel Silverstein and Emily Dickinson were my main inspirations. As well as a lot of the music from the mid to late 2010’s

“I’m nobody! Who are you?

Are you – Nobody- too?”

Man, Emily pierced right through my fifteen-year-old heart and I knew I found a new way of conveying how I felt. Because I knew what it felt like to be nobody, invisible, inconsequential. The fear of being noticed and wanting to be surrounded by people with the same anxieties as me. Just to be able to avoid speaking my weaknesses to those who wouldn’t understand. All in just a few stanzas.

At about the same time, I started playing with writing stories and creating characters. A lot of it was made easier by writing poetry to explain those characters and situations that I couldn’t state clearly otherwise.

In truth, this is a love letter to my younger self and the influences I imbibed. I hope I can pierce someone’s heart the way other poets have and continue to do today.

Which is exactly why I created a combined book of my favorite and most popular poems over the years. Plus a few I kept in a journal and never shared until today. Mostly because I was a closeted atheist and now I can say whatever I want because I’ve already been ostracized by my religion.

I also got someone to illustrate for the chapter headings. Isabel Crooks is a very talented artist and I think she mastered the minimalistic art style that I love. You can find more of her work on her Esty shop by clicking the link.