There's something about writing a poem that's magical. The power of capturing your emotions in that moment and inscribing them on a page is comparable to none other. Through that action, you have the power to send your emotions to other people and make them feel exactly how you felt. I always found such comfort in that notion. That one day I would let other people read my poems and they'd be able to feel as I felt; I would no longer feel as alone.

My first memories of poem writing would have to be in middle school. Of course, in middle school, my mind was captured by one thing, and one thing only: boys. So, naturally, I wrote a lot of love poems as a 12-year-old. They were filled with the flowery words and overcharged metaphors that I'd use to describe my lovely imaginary boyfriend.

It was a simpler time.

I wrote about a lot of picnics in the park, kisses at lockers, and being "so in love". I knew nothing about love at that point, but a girl could dream, right?

During high school, I hit a bit of a plateau, poetry-wise. I didn't have too much to write about. There wasn't much going on in my life during high school to write about, so I began to use music as my inspiration. I was living through someone else's emotions. I became a big song writer, and would often snatch themes from big songs like...

the effervescent loneliness from Rihanna's California King Bed...

and the unconditional, flowery love from Beyonce's Love on Top...

...to create songs of my own.

They weren't too great of songs, but they were my creations. That was enough for me.

Once college came along, I was thrown into that world; I changed as a person and as a writer. I didn't just write about fluffy love. I became a writer who wrote about issues. The spirit of the Black Lives Matter movement came to my attention when I was in college, and it completely changed my outlook on what it truly means to be black in America. So that became all that I could wrote about because it was what I was experiencing at the time.

And then, I fell in love for the first time when I was 19.

Suddenly, I was thrown back into my 12 year old brain. All I could write about was him. There was no "off switch." I wrote, wrote, and wrote until my fingers felt like they were falling off. It was one of the most intense feelings that I've ever felt in my life, and it hit me like a runaway truck.

My first heartbreak a couple months after hit me the same way.

If I didn't have the chance to dump all my feelings out, all these events would have affected me in an entirely different way. Writing is my coping mechanism. I have to write; it's how I deal. No matter how big or how small, I write about it. It's what has shaped me into the woman I am today.

I love poetry, and I always will. Even though the world hasn't read my poetry (yet), I have a small collection of poems from my middle school years all the way to present day. Maybe one day the world will see what I have to offer, but for now I'm happy for it to be just me. Most everyone wouldn't want to see cheesy 12 year old playground poetry anyway.