Writing to My Younger Self

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