Revisiting My Old Writings

As you might have noticed if you read my most recent post, “The Museum of Freedom”, I have been looking through some of my old writings today as I have been trying to find inspiration for new writing. (So far, it has not worked, but I have been having fun—and a little bit of cringing—reading what I used to write.) And, of course, I wanted to share some of those writings with you, my readers, because—well, why not? I would love to see some of the earlier works by my favorite writers, just to see how their voices developed over the years and how their views might have evolved. Why not give my readers the same chance?

Rereading my old work has given me some time to reflect, also. Reflect on my progress as a writer, as a person. I am certainly not the same writer—or person—that I was when I wrote “The Museum of Freedom”. After all, I was only sixteen then. I was just starting to find my voice; that was part of the reason why I had taken part in the Stanford EPGY program, for which I had written the poem. Even now, at thirty-two years old, I am still developing my voice. Anyone who looks back through my catalogue of work on Vocal from the beginning can see how my writing has grown over the past three—almost four—years since I joined Vocal.

For example, I used to try to rhyme my poetry. A LOT. I could not believe how hard I had tried to make “The Museum of Freedom” rhyme as I was typing it back up from the physical copy. Nowadays, I do not try so hard to rhyme. If my poetry rhymes, it rhymes; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. That isn’t the most important thing to me anymore (unless, of course, the form calls for it, but that is a different beast altogether). I have become much freer in that sense, and I am so grateful for that.

My ideas about the world have changed as well. One stanza in “The Museum of Freedom” addresses the end of slavery. Let’s just say that it was a simplistic view, to say the least, especially when compared to the rest of the poem. I did not know what I was talking about, to be honest, and have since learned more about the time immediately following the end of slavery. I now understand that the end of slavery did not mean the beginning of freedom, and I would write that stanza much differently if I were to write that poem today.

Is it painful to revisit my old writings? A bit, yes. It can even make me pause and wonder if I am on the right path. Is it painful to share these old writings with my readers? Again, yes, a bit. However, I think that these are practices that we as writers should all get into. It sounds a bit discouraging, but I think that it is helpful to see how far we have come in our writing journeys and can even help us to figure out where we need to go from here. Sharing this old writing can also give us the chance to get feedback from our readers, to see what they think of how far we have come and where we used to be, as well as see where they think we should be going.

Have you revisited your old writings recently? Found any gems, or perhaps anything that made you cringe? Have any thoughts on sharing these old writings with fellow readers/writers on Vocal? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!