On the 26th of September I embarked on a ‘Poem a Day’ challenge. I wanted to see if I could do any‘thing’ for 365 days consecutively. I wanted to test the theories about habit formation. I wanted to stretch my identity as a non-poet. I wanted to chronicle the frequency of recurring thoughts. I wanted to practice something non-screen and output (as opposed to input) based before surrendering to the Dreamworld at night. I wanted to create.

Furthermore, I wanted to see what (if anything) had changed after 365 days! Both in my inner landscape and my poetic prowess. A little bit more than 360 degrees of revolution. How much can we really transform ourselves?

The process was fascinating. I intend on devising a sensual poetry / poem bingo festival workshop from it, and/or doing a pop-up exhibition at some point of the future. But for now, I have my archive and I can return to any date in that year and dip into a stream of consciousness and words that captured my experience. Re-assessing an experience through a poem allows me to understand it in a way thought alone never will.

I learned and so much about how poetry has been used as a prayer for peace, as analogies for the meta physical mysteries that continue to confound us, as therapeutic tools, are lairs for double (and even triple or quadruple!) entendres, crystalise what can be a Gordian knot of conflictual feels in a seemingly unmappable internal realm into externalised artefact of art.