I Accidentally Started and Finished a Poem Project

I'm not quite sure how it happened. One year, I had created a mostly dormant Instagram account solely to see photos of my friend's baby, and I named it asherlockwrites because that was already my username on Twitter. I didn't really use it much until this summer, when, inspired by a few friends I started posting more ~artsy~ posts (check them out here, here and here). And I reminded myself of my goal to share more writing this year, everywhere and anywhere.

And my username was a. sherlock writes after all. May as well use it to do some writing.

So I started this project on a whim of inspiration and a healthy dose of "just do it." I started with a quick little thing I wrote, inspired by a beaver my dad and I saw on a bike ride one day in early spring.

After that, I saw the string of words that I had displayed on my wall, words that were reminders for me of things I'd learned over the past year. I had drawn them with watercolour paints and displayed them so I would be reminded daily of these things. What if, I thought... what if I created a poem for each word, trying to express the lesson I had learned? And if I alternated the words with like, scenery or something? That also included poems?

This project started as a kind of accidental waterfall where I ended up just going with the flow. But it became an exercise in vulnerability, being okay with imperfection, and making myself actually sit down and write. All the poems are pretty rough still, and I'm definitely not 100% happy with all of them, but that wasn't the point. The point was saying: just post it. Stop caring about it being perfect, being ready. Just get it out there.

And you know, I ended up quite liking sharing my poem project this time (the other time I did a poem project like this, I didn't share it). I like the comments and connections I made, the knowledge that maybe some people got what I was trying to say, or maybe they were reminded of something or learned something from lessons I had learned previously. Vulnerability, I've been learning this year, can be pretty powerful.

So I present to you a selection from my summer poem project, lessons & travels. You can read the complete project at instagram.com/asherlockwrites.

(also please read them on Instagram because otherwise the formatting of the poems gets messed up! This is what I get for using social media to post poetry, I guess.)

View this post on Instagram

wait. a word for a season of letting go and moving on, for stumbling through (too many) possibilities. a word that begs for stopping; for gratitude, pause and reflection. for release and rest, trusting and unagitated. a word unsettling and unsatisfying. another version, a sparkle in an eye: just you wait.

A post shared by @ asherlockwrites on May 10, 2018 at 3:22pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

could contentment be this: feeling the pull of the current suspended in time the only traffic sounds bird chirps and a million mysteries laid out on the riverbank, forgotten about for now

A post shared by @ asherlockwrites on Jun 25, 2018 at 9:32am PDT

View this post on Instagram

prairie ocean black, red-winged fish chirp diving in and out of green and yellow waves while riding through the part in the sea swallowed by the wide open blue happily surrendered to drowning

A post shared by @ asherlockwrites on Jul 6, 2018 at 2:10pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

gut reaction: revolt harbour hurts as a handful of arrows pile them up for protection except i'm the one being pierced upon reflection: bury all weapons all chipped story endings leave behind graves of what c̶o̶u̶l̶d̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ never was believe in beginnings

A post shared by @ asherlockwrites on Aug 24, 2018 at 3:33pm PDT

More posts from this year's writing series:
Begin Again, about how to start again after writing slumps
Scared of Being Afraid about how rewarding it is to share work
You, about the loveliness of everyone's unique writing style