yes yes 10k poems and so what?
I’m barely 1% way through with transferring my piles of handwritten poems into digital format for the 10k poems poetry exercise and we’ve already gotten some fascinating + kind reactions from some readers, mostly folks I’m already acquainted with.
My thought process (a): 10k of anything is just a hundred things that have been done a hundred times over. It’s basically 100 x 100. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s simple. Simple ≠ not requiring considerable effort. Just saying it’s possible, many people (myself included) have done a hundred things a hundred times over without realizing it. It just comes with the territory of commitment and mastery.
My thought process (b): I could not bring myself to comfortably identify as a poet for some reason, until I had gotten about 10k poems, handwritten, filling up several journals that are piled up on my shelves, from personal observations, paying attention to my environments, to my thoughts, to my life, to the life of others. I could not justifiably call myself a poet until I had gotten roughly 10k poems out of my system, and still wanted to write poetry, still felt pulled to poetry after, still enjoyed reading poetry, and studying poets of old. This was the whole point for me. An indication of a personal flaw right? Yes, maybe. Either way I don’t expect this to apply to anyone else, this is just a part of my own process. I’m not in anyway implying that this is normal (even though I could argue that it is). This was just my own process with my writing craft when it comes to poetry. I did not and am not applying the same roadmap for other mediums writing. There are other tests I use for other mediums for myself as an attempt to justify or measure my ability to do the work through each medium. For poetry 10k poems were my measure. I think it’s important to put in enough volume (within reason) into anything, and then decide if you like the process and medium or not. I love poetry. I will write and read poems until the day I die.
I’m not sure how long it will take for the whole thing to be uploaded online. But we’ll see! I’m greatly enjoying the process whenever I get a moment to upload more poems, it gives me the opportunity to reread the things I have written and see my poems with fresh eyes.
