Making sand castles.

We dig for sand dollars and pretty shells.

SAND CASTLES BY FORREST MILLER 34THPARALLEL MAGAZINE ISSUE 19

Being this age in this age

is making sand castles

in front of an approaching tide.

We see the driftwood. We dig for sand dollars

and pretty shells. We write our names.

We inspect with curiosity

the hollowed-out crab shells

and seagull carcasses.

Gleefully, we try to outrun the waves;

we still get wet. Then the sea comes

and washes it all away, grinding down

the bones, the shells, the names.

When we have gone, the sea rolls back out

leaving nothing but empty horizon, clean sand,

and the echo of waves.

FORREST MILLER

I had always been told I was a talented writer and had written poetry as a hobby. After college I set off backpacking around the world. I had not settled on being a writer since I still had concerns about the financial aspects. I did know, however, that I loved writing and wanted to give it a try even if it was something on the side. That being said, I felt it was important to broaden my horizons travelling.

The next step was to find my own writing voice. I started experimenting to find my writing identity. I also knew that I needed somewhere fun and creative to help channel the creative juices. On a whim I selected Portland and moved there, even though I had never been to Oregon before in my life. Immediately I fell in love with the city and told myself that I would spend one year as a struggling artist in the city and really practice my craft before I made any decisions about what I wanted to do with my life. After a year, however, I had made very little progress in terms of figuring out my life. I did, however, start to feel like I was finding my voice in my writing and decided it was time to start sending out submissions to see if I could get anything published. And so, I find myself today in the position of still not really knowing what I want to do with my life. I am only now beginning to consider myself a “writer” or a “poet” but I do feel grounded and enjoy working on my writing and seeing where it takes me.

Writing is very hard work. Writing is a real skill that must be honed just like anything else. Almost anyone can write a sentence but to be a writer, to be professional at it, to be talented, takes a lot more than just putting down some thoughts on paper. A writer must always be tinkering with his work and be prepared to omit parts that the writer might love but others do not.

I also try to take myself out of my own writing. I’m not always successful at this, but I find there is an overabundance of poetry out there about teenage angst and suffering. There are always themes about suicide and being misunderstood and so on… That sort of writing is good practice and has a place in the world but I’m not sure that place is in a published form. It has become very hard to produce good literature in a confessional style since there is so much of it and it has largely become cliché.

I’d also say, “don’t overdo it” with writing. Flowery poetry for the sake of flowery poetry about nothing isn’t very readable. It’s difficult to build an audience if there is not really a lot of meaning in a poem or the poem comes across as pretentious. If someone who doesn’t know much about poetry can’t figure out what the poem is talking about then the writer has probably gotten too caught up in his/her own head. That being said, a poem can be very complex in terms of emotional content, poetic devices, deeper meanings, etc. but don’t turn your audience off by just playing word games.