Hannah Rothbard

Reflecting on James Baldwin’s “The Creative Process” and My Own

At 20 years old, I wrote my first poem and rediscovered the blissfully frightening feeling of starting something new that I knew nothing about. I write about love and music and not much else, but somehow these subjects reveal so much about myself to me. The closing line of a poem ties up loose ends; it gives me the closure others could not. The nuances of a comma or an indentation make all the difference, placing space to reflect at the precise moments and demanding attention at others.