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Why Write?

Finding Catharsis in Words

By Nalda ParkerPublished 5 years ago 3 min read
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I began writing poetry at fifteen. At the time I wrote poetry largely as a means of fulfilling an English requirement in high school. I wrote poetry, because my mind tends to give me a string of words or a single image to work with.

I have always assumed that people who write novels must get larger chunks of inspiration. I know that when I have attempted to write longer pieces, the result is often less than inspiring. I find writing long pieces to be excessively difficult and yet, of course, this is what everyone suggest you do.

The emphasis on novels is no doubt due to the fact that one can expect to be paid for a novel. One can never expect to be paid, at least not with money, for a poem. A poet may be paid in copies, if—and only if—the journal publishing the work has a budget that allows for this. Most often, the pay for a poem is the satisfaction of publication. Clearly, poets are very thin willowy creatures that can live on thin and infrequent meals of praise.

So why write? I know that I have wondered this often enough. I have found that the answer is largely due to the fact that one cannot count on deep and meaningful conversations. If one writes, one can write deep, intimate, and soulful poetry or prose with little fear of ever being read. Therefore, one can say one's fill without risk of contradiction or reprisal as very few people bother to read these days.

I find that writing is a meaningful way of expressing what one's soul feels compelled to share without forcing the writer to find a willing partner in conversation. Writing allows one to exercise the demons within without putting another person through the task of listening. If one finds a reader, it is a profound surprise and I suppose joy, though I never personally find that people are rushing to share their thoughts or feelings surrounding my writing with me.

Writing is a solitary joy, or horror, as the case may be. The exercise of writing allows the writer to exhaust thoughts that would otherwise rob him/her of sleep. Putting pen to paper or finger to keyboard allows one to exercise the thoughts that rob one of one's poise. When one suffers from a spot of inspiration, one finds oneself awake and puzzling over the words in one's head until they can be placed together and tied in a sound (or unsound) argument with a bow. Once this task is complete, the writer is again free to pursue life like a reasonable human being.

Writing is an exercise in voicing the words that others often can not bear to hear. A writer can wax poetic about the beauty of some insignificant object that "normal" people could not bear to listen to. Just as an artist may paint endless renditions of the same scene with no harm to others, so can a writer spout endless nonsense with no real concern for those who might otherwise be taxed with the hearing of their words.

Writing allows the writer to fly in his/her imagination and visit places unimagined by the reasonable world with no real harm of being thought insane. And neatly tucked within a private desk the writer may build years of imaginings of people unknown and places uninhabited. For writing has no cost beyond the paper upon which it is written, unless it is read. For so many of us there is very little threat of that.

So, I will always remain a profound supporter of the written word and the writers quietly forming their tales. I will defend forever the task that frees writers to sleep at night and unburden their fertile imaginations from the likes of Tom Sawyer and David Copperfield. I will advocate wholeheartedly for the wounded to unburden their souls from the pain that rides within them such that they can continue day to day with unfurrowed brows. Why write? Indeed, why not write?

inspirational
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About the Creator

Nalda Parker

Nalda has led a rich and varied life. She has worked as a college professor, a mental health counselor, a psychosocial rehabilitation therapist, a research assistant, a retail associate, and a starving artist.

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