Sparks & Starts: "A Room Like This"

A poem's initial inspiration & handwritten first draft

Hi, Friend.

In case you’re new here, let me tell you about Spark & Starts. This is a series of posts for paid subscribers where I share my process, from initial handwritten notes (or cringe-y early typed drafts) to published poem or essay. One of my goals for this newsletter is to demystify the writing process by letting you peek behind the curtain.

Today I’m sharing the initial notes for what became “A Room Like This,” a poem in my fourth collection, Goldenrod. I love flipping through old notebooks and finding the beginnings of now-published poems and essays there.