The past few weeks I have been taking a break from writing my book to focus more on my poetry. I've written several poems and started submitting poetry I've written over the past year to journals and magazines. The topics of the poems range from queerness to disability to other aspects of my identity, as well as broader topics like love and justice.
Many of these poems are deeply personal, and I have felt very vulnerable by sharing them. I feel exposed right after sending the emails (or submitting the forms) because I know not only is my creative work going to be judged but that I am asking for it to be judged.
I have lucked into a serendipitous choice in books to read, though. I just started reading Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown, which provides a detailed explanation on why making the choice to be vulnerable is the only way to truly be brave. I'm only a few chapters in, but so far one quote has stood out to me:
“Only when we’re brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” @BreneBrown
I feel like lately in my life I have been exploring the "dark" parts of myself. I don't mean dark as in evil, but as in the crevices that need to be explored to learn about what really makes up who I am as a person. In the last year, I've worked on coming to terms with my disability, come out of the closet as non-binary, and started exploring my creative writing again. It has been terrifying, but maybe by doing all this, I will discover something about my strengths that I didn't know before.