Jeremy C Kester

A theme for the week! Not really a theme per-say, but rather it is becoming a topic that I will be repeating for the foreseeable future. That topic? Writing by hand.

For the last decade or so, my writing by hand has been limited to non-existent. I’ve tried to write, as stated before, using some form of computer, be it a phone, laptop, desktop, tablet, or whatever. It is quicker. I am even pounding out this particular blog post using a laptop. During that time, a certain form of writing that I used to enjoy plummeted.

Poetry.

I’ve been writing poetry longer than I’ve been writing fiction. Not too much longer; just longer. It’s been a kind of therapeutic release for me. And it’s also a way that I used to practice a more fluid (and prettier) style in order to improve my prose. But in the last decade I’ve barely written much in the way of poetry, save only a few lines here or there. As soon as I would start writing something poetic, it would stall. Until recently I didn’t quite understand it.

When I wrote that last blog post by hand, it sort-of awoke something inside. Suddenly, lines of poetry began to slip out of the pen as though I hadn’t stopped writing at all. What in hell was happening?

I believe that it has something to do with the distraction that a computer offers. That coupled with the ability to allow my mind to race forward in writing, not inhibited by the lag my hand presents versus the keyboard. Poetry requires a different way of writing, of thinking, than does standard prose. Than any style of fiction writing. Though the styles and thinkings can be intermingled, when writing poetry, a rushed and distracted mind doesn’t serve the art.

As I get more into the move from exclusive writing on an electronic medium to the more traditional style of pen and paper, there might be a few more things that I discover along the way. I am just hoping that this resurgence of writing poetry isn’t short lived.