first light
Amelia Y.
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"first light" is a poem where I didn't set out with a specific theme or topic in mind, but kind of let it reveal itself as I was writing line by line. Even still, I think there is an interesting sense of ambiguity that allows each reader to interpret what the poem is about for themselves. To me, it's mostly centered around this idea of growing up and leaving home and my mom behind. As for the writing process, I really tried to pay attention to the allocation of breath and the spacing of words in this poem. I played around a lot with the commas and the line breaks, and trying to vary how long every sentence was before a period.
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To me, especially with poetry, creativity means freedom. Absent strict adherence to grammar or syntax, I think poetry is a form that unburdens me from external pressure in order to explore my selfhood, capture the essence of my lived experience, and invoke emotional catharsis, giving full freedom over creative expression.
