Writing a (Poetic) God while Disbelieving

December 20, 2017

This isn’t a new concept. Epic poetry has been calling to gods and muses for centuries. However, the nuance is in a lack of spiritual power attached to that character. The Poetic God is a trope to which I address my existential idiosyncrasies. This God exists only in my writing as a thematic apostrophe linked to all the other poems that address a god. For someone that believes in a higher power, my lines may resonate for them as a genuinely religious exhortation. I encourage that. For me, their poetry referencing a religious god becomes my Poetic God.

What the Cost of Affiliation Is Like

October 17, 2017

It isn’t all bad here. I hope everyone knows that. I hope everyone could grow to love the walnut trees that line my driveway. Love the tea that everyone drinks here. Love the way that I have always been amiable and able to talk to strangers on a basic level. I’m not sure that I have accepted these things are beautiful or good yet. This place, my place, has left me so empty that I cannot call it home. I’m trying to love it without thinking about the horror I have seen within it. But can you do that? Can you leave it behind? Everyone must think I hate the state of West Virginia and its people. My family thinks so. They call me Miss Lydia or Lydia Alexis when they feel that I’m being snotty. They think I hate them all. Some of them are right.

What My Compulsion to Write Actually Means

March 29, 2016

I’ve thought a lot lately about writing as an inherently inward and narcissistic act--my thoughts, my interestingness, my hidden depths. Joan wrote that we spend our lives being told we are less interesting than everyone around us so I write: It is nighttime, and I am in Rome, pretending everyone around is far less interesting than me.