The most popular notion among us that the people who are poets, they tend to draw from their wounds, the inspiration, that drives them to write and in process create the master pieces that end up being etched in the walls of time forever. Suddenly this notion struck me hard while thinking away my time. Being an aspiring author and poet, I began to wonder about this hypothesis. The first thought that popped in my head was this...
Well, This might be actually be true.
As aspiring as I am, I don't really (surprisingly) read as much as I should. Without a particular amount of knowledge in the field of Literature, I always doubted that with passion alone I won't be able to survive. But with the age in mind and the limited experiences I have in life, I think I am doing fine. I am still writing. I am still able to fill pages with scenarios that I build up inside my head. There is a realm where the world I create exists and people are able to see that too. So I guess I am progressing.
However, this progress brings a couple of questions into my head.
* If I lack knowledge in Literature, what is it that keeps me writing?
* If I am writing well, am I pain?
Frankly, I began writing with one simple motive - To gather attention. And boy, it worked like a charm. The mere four lines about a car going on the road on a sunny day conjured up by a kid of ten (or eleven?) pulled the adults into awe and kids of my own age into fascination. They were baffled by the fact that I wanted to depict my imagination with words Following my success with a small poem, I wanted to extend more. Hence happened my first attempt at a story. My friends from that time might still remember about it...it was ridiculous! The protagonist was a girl (obviously) who had three elder brothers and though a very happy family, harboured a dark past. Well, as ridiculous as it seems, I didnt even get past the introduction and never even thought about the dark past. But while it did exist, the story, it made me a fact for attention as my friends wanted to know how it was going to be. This way I gradually started both my exploits in poetry and stories.
After a while though, when the bitterness of life settled in, writing became my companion. More than a hobby or something that I'm passionate about, I began to write for survival. My expressions, my feelings were reflected on the paper and it helped me stay at ease when I was unable to express it outright. These writings developed over time and it reached to a point where people started to interpret it's meaning by relating it with themselves. So these writings, that came out of frustration and a need for expression, oppressed by pain felt at the moment, does this make pain the motivator for writing?
Personally, I am a strong believer in WORDS. They are the most powerful force in this entire universe and how lucky must us humans be in order to be able to use such a power. A power of such abundance that allows a human to understand, to know, to feel, to express. However, we aren't perfect are we? We, like every imperfect species, misuse them often. We throw it around, we take it for granted and we even abuse it sometimes. In spite of these shortcomings, we tend to use them right mostly. We validate our existence by using them to express ourselves, our love and our thoughts to the world around us. Poetry is, I personally believe, is one of the instances where the words are used right.
Poetry is not about just expression, it is about expressing the feelings in the right way. The ability to be able to do so. Only then can you be able to tell that you felt the meaning thoroughly right? They express not just pain, but happiness, hope, love, anger, like a whole set of emotions. So why is that only pain is labelled as the 'cause' for this 'effect'? That is when I realized that the answer to both my questions were intertwined.
Even with ignorance on my part, I am able to continue to write is because I want to use my words to express. I want to craft them in a way that, once you read them, you would understand the meaning behind them. It is my refection that you see or that I want you to see through those words. Until the day where you are able to interpret them without me trying to make you see, I will want to improve and hence I will write more. This drives me to write, And the pain that a creator feels is the thought - to let others know an understand their words.
You don't have to be a miserable person who's seen a tremendous amount of pain to express yourself with words and thereby create a masterpiece. You just need to be close enough to your words, so that they help you in return by reflecting your heart. Words, when used right, they will move you they way they are exactly supposed to. Then a though sprang up in my head...
Why are there poets and why are there the...others?
In my opinion, people who are authors, poets, actors, musicians, basically artists, aren't shy about expressing their feelings. They might be called emotional, generous, timid but they are the people who are close enough to their feelings within and their way of expression, becomes their profession. There are people who take pride, sometimes dismay in not being able to express and sometimes they tell people like me that I am too emotional to survive. I declare to all of them now... I am not 'emotional', I am 'real'. Sometimes truth is hard to hard, so maybe I am hard to handle too. Well, we have to take it as it comes right?
In conclusion, I am not damaged and I don't write because I am in pain. I pain to bring my talent to the world and through that I express. So if you're in pain, you cannot become a poet (You should probably just come out of the pain though.) Damages don't bring poetry but reality does.
To all the real people out there, let's make the world see us.
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