Building a Legacy
I have been
working for several weeks now on my books of poetry. I will have two books in
English and two books in Spanish: “I am Hope” and “The Bigger Picture”. The
poetry in the books will be from this blog, as well as my first blog, the Words
of Hope.
However, in
going through my poetry over the last three years, I found that there are many poems
that never made it to the blog. Some were too personal, some were written for a
particular person, some I didn’t think good enough to publish. I’ve since had a
change of heart. Everything will be going in the books.
It has been very
interesting for me, compiling these works, getting everything together, in the
order in which it was written. I like to do that, to read poetry, books in the
order in which they were written, listen to music in the order in which it was
written. Through this you can see (and hear) the evolution of the artist in
their craft.
Going through my
reserves of poetry has been a very eye opening experience for me, as well as a
mind opening one. I read a poem and remember what I thought, why I said what I
said, why I wrote what I wrote, who I wrote a poem to, why I felt what I felt.
I also took a
moment to think about where I began, how I started as a poet, how far I’ve
come, how much I’ve grown, and how my poetry has gained an audience. I’ve had
readers from over 30 countries read my words. That is astonishing to me. When I
began to write, it was a means to express myself. I sent the poems to a couple
of friends. I never thought that anyone else, or that the world, would care to read anything
I had to say.
I have grown a
lot in the last three years, as an artist, a person and a woman. Working on the
poetry, thinking about all of these things is a nice period of reflection. That’s
how I see it, reflection. But, that is one way to look at it. As my good
author/publisher/mentor friend said to me today, “You’re building a legacy. Your stuff will be here long after you are
gone.”
I had never
thought about that before. My poetry will live on. Long after I’ve left. That
is a daunting thought. But, not when in the context of building a legacy.
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