About Regret is The Biggest Mess

At some point in our lives, we all need to find our own voice in order to help us advocate for and express ourselves. Poetry is the language that I use to develop my voice because I believe that through my writing, I can feel free. Throughout my seventeen years of life, I have tried to find my comfort zone within every form of art that exists. While they were all enjoyable, none of them gave me the feeling of freedom and happiness that poetry gives me. I wrote this poem as I listened to the song “The Night We Met” by Lord Huron, and it made me think of the regret a person might feel when they let someone go. 

Process​

I listened to the song and I immediately started to write the poem. I decided to animate this poem because it includes a lot of imagery and metaphors that photography can help bring to life. In order to put it together, I used the software “iMovie” to create a video of pictures that illustrate the poem line by line. I chose the images not only based on how well they can complement the line in the poem, but also by the quality of the image.

The time you felt the most powerful

I felt most powerful in my writing when I shared my spoken word piece in the first DMP workshop of the year. I had never read my poetry to anyone, therefore it was a nerve wracking moment for me. My mentor felt inspired in that moment by my ability to express so much power and emotion in one poem and in the bravery it took to perform a poem I had written just minutes before. After that workshop, I felt a deep desire to change the perception of women and their struggles.