12/9 (the 2020 top 20)
Quick disclaimer: this is in no way me trying to brag! I’d be doing this anyway in my journal but since this series is kind of turning into me just journaling to you, I figured I’d just give it a go here. I loe and treasure all the growth I’ve had this year and none of that would be possible without you guys, so this is merely a recap for me to look back on someday and sigh.
Most of these pieces are not currently published. If you’d like to see one just ask! Tomorrow is throwback thursday after all :)
20) The worst of the best. The best of the worst. The smartest guy on the football team. The tallest dwarf. ”Satellites,” one of the very first of my actually good poems. It had structure and read like it was written for an English class assignment. At this point, I was trying to master technical skill so I could find style. This was one of those, and this really skyrocketed my stylistic evolution.
19) Getting an honorable mention in the one and only N.’s contest was something I was really proud of for a really long time. The piece that got me there? The first of my many Gatsby inspired ones, ”forgive me daisy, for i have sinned.”
18) ”humans” was the first piece I wrote specifically to be spoken word. I even started to animate it...but kind of maybe quit a little bit. Oh well.
17) “but what if i don’t think everyone’s an artist?” is the piece that made my Write the World account go boom. It nearly tripled my audience every time I reposted it. I look back now and cringe, but it can’t have been as bad as I make it out to be.
16) ”yes sir yes sir yes sir we should be ashamed.” I thought I had something with this one, I really did. And in a sense, I was right. This piece held...a lot of firsts for me, and at the time I genuinely thought it would be my peak. I had a hard time writing anything else after it, and kept feeling like I had to top myself, which is actually a pretty common thing for me. Anyway, first wtw comp entry, first poem about a controversial issue, first time really playing with format...maybe it’s just up here for the nostalgia value but I was pretty dang proud.
15) I still can’t decide if I think Sena placed me first for this in her comp just because she’s one of my best friends or not, but it reads like “satellites” does. Clean. Pretty. ”and in the wake of tragedy she learns again to feel” for 15 :)
14) ”melinda to boo” was a major stylistic breakthrough for me, and was inspired by a real person. Not the most interesting read, but it was like a seed, and everything after it started to flourish a bit more.
13) ”compilations.” I go back and read this and it feels like a knock off Dodie song, but in a kind of good way. It’s warm, but I don’t think many people got the premise of it, so in that respect, it might have been a fail.
12) ”i wonder if anyone ever used ‘jesus wept’ as their confirmation verse--i wonder what their mother thought”--an ode to my ex best friend on her birthday. I still read this one and can feel every emotion I poured out when I wrote it. And I know that’s likely just because I wrote it so I know, but let my have my fantasy in which this is good, okay?
11) Short lines aren’t something I’m particulary good at, nor am I partial to them, but I went through a phase and the outcome of that was ”because Julius Caesar is everything like high school.” It was definitely an interesting one, and I can still read it without cringing, which is always a plus.