GENERAL UPDATE - LIFE (LAZINESS?)
It's been a busy few months with the release of Dimly Lit Room in Femagogy's May Issue and all the work toward new things. I'm definitely starting to recognise the beauty in how nothing ever stops and how there is only more expected. I think this is all a good thing. I think the push is all I ever needed to get through, get my mind off things.
As promised, a new, smaller chapbook is underway and, admittedly, I'd intended a lot more progress to have been made however can announce it will be ready for release MUCH closer to the first reveal than dldr ever was. The challenge of dim lights, dim reality gave me an incredible amount of insight toward self-publishing my own work and after years spent holding onto one thing, I've been trying to let go of smaller pieces to remind myself that not everything has to be prime, polished, perfect, but exist in the moment the way it should. That sounded a LOT easier than it was, admittedly.
The chapbooks are definitely in production regardless and when I say chapbooks, I mean multiple. It seems the only way I can tolerate making concepts in three or four small but poignant poems is by allowing myself the power to spread all of those concepts out and fully take a look into each individual poem. What I'm saying might be nonsense, but I think it's another reflection of how well writing, as any art form, aids in that exploration of self and values and something so intangible we sometimes forget it even exists.
I'm clearly on a very pleasant high today, can we tell?
Despite everything both nonsense and normal, there is a lot of movement in the new Newmarket house and many many new poems and features and submissions and releases will be taking place in the next few years. What I remind myself, every day now, is that in four years I have gone from single publishing to self published chapbook and feature in multiple organisations, contacts from different countries and states and at twenty one, I have so much more to travel.
I so am blessed to be here, blessed to be writing, blessed to have my words.
SIDENOTE: In the next year, there has been a lot of talk about expanding my readings from just family funerals to either public events or personal readings. dim lights was originally intended to be released with a public reading but I didn't feel we'd come prepared enough for a release party and reading. However, this push has meant that there's been a lot of planning about what might be best and at what age, stage and rage of my writing it should come. If you follow my poetry instagram, it will be one of the only places to reveal too much in regard to any readings, so if you don't, probably give it a quick glance every now and then if you're at all concerned. I am much better at reading than I admit but I think it comes down to a personal opinion of the society around me and a fear of letting myself get too involved. Regardless, there will be some version of my poetry that will eventually be graspable to the human ear and eye, not just in print, whether that does end up in a coffee shop, home or even a video. If you have anywhere you'd like to see me though, feel free to get in contact however you'd like. I'm always down for a challenge if it's presented.
Keep staying safe and staying more real and brutal and
honest and bloody than
ever before
(but only in the best ways, right?)
Yours,
Charlotte E.E. Griffiths
@C.G.POETRY