Writing to My Younger Self
Updated: Sep 16, 2021
I think I'll start doing this exercise daily for a few days. Today kicks off the first poem to my younger self.
I didn't write this poem until I just free-associated with the collage I made from some paint and two old postcards put together. It's fun for me when visual images subconsciously inform my writing.
I didn't know that poem was autobiographical about myself as a microcosm for Western industrialized society until I read it through a few times. This one was me talking to my younger self about the habits I internalized. Now as I grow older I realize how I'd like to overcome: being reserved, distant, driven to succeed, fearful of failure. The paradigm of being the best and setting a great example for everyone while pleasing them is not something I value much anymore. It's time to make room in my life to be vulnerable, effusive, affectionate, and making mistakes while learning new things.
A Letter to Little Elizabeth
Dear Child of Industry
While looking North and facing South
Grasp East and West
With your grubby hands
Bless our factories
So that we may produce
What we claim
And be the brightest flower
To face the Son
Love is precious
To be doled out in measures
Not spilled into valleys
Stay with us
On this mountain
So we can look down
Shine a light for us
So hot no one may touch
