by Amber Koneval
The first question I always get when I tell people that I am a poet is “What is your poetry about?” For the most part it seems like they are waiting for me to give them some sort of genre, as if poets must be limited to only writing about love or social justice issues or nature. A lot of potential poets think this way too. I did, once upon a time. I felt like poems always had to be some kind of declamation of major importance, and that I needed to have some grand scheme in mind every single time that I wrote. You can imagine what kind of trite slop came out of that mentality. I’ve been published in poetry for four years now, and I can assure you that it is not because I’ve been solving the world’s problems via verse. In fact, most of the time I don’t even know what I am thinking when I start to write a poem.
My junior year of high school was when I first realized that I was kind of good at this whole poetry thing. Naturally, then, I wanted to write more. When I was left to just write what I thought was ‘poetry’, however, I ended up writing the same old teenage angst anthem over and over again. I had no idea what I was supposed to do to produce verse of actual worth. Then my Creative Writing teacher, one Mr. Wells, suggested a ‘poetry diary’. In it, we were supposed to write a poem a day, drawing inspiration from any moment that made us pause for whatever reason. Needless to say I took that idea and hit the ground running with it. To this day, I still have my poetry diary with me at all times. Some days I’ll write multiple poems. Some days I’ll write none. Some days I’m completely inspired, while others I have to force myself to even crack open the diary. I am constantly practicing poetry, using anything and everything as a prompt. Among the most recent poems that I have had published one was inspired by a Skype conversation with a Kenyan friend, one was written about clubbing with an old boyfriend, one about being home sick with my little sister, one as a reflection of a homily and several others as responses to questions posed in my classes at Regis University.
Being young, there are so many new things that I am experiencing on a daily basis for the first time. As a poet, I am bound to take advantage of those new feelings and experiences. Poetry isn’t the art of explaining the world, or fixing it. It is the art of expressing the world, thinking it through and displaying it as it appears from inside that part of you that no one else can touch. The meaning comes from that, not from any thesis you might be concocting. The meaning comes from the fact that someone out there can read such intimate thoughts of yours and say ‘ah! I understand’ and relate to things that you might have thought you were completely alone in. But to do that, you have to completely understand yourself- which can only come from practice.
That is why I write in cycles. Since I am still in school, the easiest way for me to do that is to write from one May to the next. Last cycle I wrote around 111 poems, and in the previous cycle I wrote about 120. The only cohesive element about them is that they are chronologically written, and trace my feelings about the events that happened within the cycle- all the periods of growth, anger, happiness, and downright confusion. From those raw collections I pick out my favorites to create into cycle-manuscripts, which each have anywhere from 80-90-something poems in them. From those manuscripts I share my art, submitting to literary magazines, online journals, performing them at slams and posting readings of my work on my YouTube channel and personal website.
I feel so grateful to have been born in this generation of high technology. There are more ways afforded to us young poets to ply our trade than ever before. People now are much more open to publishing and supporting youngsters in the arts, and it is so much easier to figure out for yourself how to break into the industry. I myself learned about submission etiquette and manuscript compiling through Google, and I have published 29 poems in seven different publications both print and online. All you need now is the drive to succeed, a willingness and courage to share, and the resolve to never give up. I may get almost seven rejection letters to any one acceptance, but I have learned to be grateful for any opportunity given rather than be bitter about being snubbed. I’m young! I have plenty of time to ‘break through’ in poetry, to find my true rhythm, and become the artist I was meant to be. For now, I just want to enjoy every day that I have. I want to share what living that to the fullest means with anyone who will listen.
My advice for other young poets? Write about you. Learn a little more about yourself, day by day, through written reflection. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve been trying to tell yourself all this time. Keep that conversation going. At some point that conversation with yourself is going to become so interesting that people will beg to be let in. And you will let them, because it is just so hard to keep something that wonderful to yourself. So don’t. Be persistent. Never get knocked down just because someone didn’t appreciate what you have to say. Say it with clearer diction. Say it to someone else who is ready to hear. Take advantage of this generation of hyper-connection and make it real. That’s what will make all the difference.