J. Redel

Write A Poem To A Friend, Even A Lousy Poem

Katie, 2023. iphone 14 Pro Max iColorama app Brushstroke app

Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.

Sing in the shower.

Dance to the radio.

Tell stories.

Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem.

Do it as well as you possibly can.

You will get an enormous reward.

You will have created something.

— Kurt Vonnegut

  • When You Rise, Kiss The Tombstone of Your Past
    When you rise, kiss the tombstone of your past and step barefoot into the garden of the future… — Maria Popova from poem How to Change Your Life
  • Then You Must Know About Grief
    Tell it this way: depression is the 30cm nail driving into the walls. If  you ever read about Plath… ever tended a garden it grew so wild to swallow god, ever kept dressing the fire in your bones, then you must know about grief — NOME EMEKA PATRICK from poem Sylvia Plath as an Old… Read more: Then You Must Know About Grief
  • So I Dated Unsuitable Men
    So I went back to an old lover To get over you. But it turned outHe didn’t want me. So I dated unsuitable menAnd went unsuitable places. I behaved badly. There was even a guyWith worse teeth than you. —I didn’t know your teeth were bad.You should have told me.— Finally, I sat down and… Read more: So I Dated Unsuitable Men
  • My Relationship To Reality Is Already Fraught
    My relationship to reality is already fraught. The hours I give to volcano podcasts and vampire T.V. shows prove that I am susceptible to disconnection. — Roni Blankenhorn from poem Mise en Abime
  • Stitch Close The Open Wound
    Like being shredded from the inside outBroken fragments of what wasPeely discards of what ifsA few but maybes litter the floorStitch close the open woundwith threads of yesterday. — J Redel poem Stitch Close the Open Wound