Just pick it up. Your favorite pen… and write something, anything. Just get rolling. And then write something describing your writing style, or your quest to fine tune it. Or your struggle to find your voice. Or maybe a retort to your critics. Just be you for you. Write about that.
My answer to them
You can’t write a poem like that,
they said.
That is not your voice.
That is not the way you talk, or think.
This poem is a fake.
How do you know?
I said.
There is a huge part of me you have not seen.
There are many sides of me.
Maybe the side I present to you
is the fake one.
Of course it is.
How can I possibly present the real me
to you?
I have fears that are paralyzing,
but you might dismiss them as irrelevant.
I have hopes and dreams I do not voice.
You might say they are too unrealistic
or too grandiose,
or would take me too far away
from you all.
I have revolving negative thoughts—
if you knew how many
you might say
I live at the bottom of a tar barrel.
I believe in spirit and soul,
sage and holy water,
forgiveness and redemption.
You might smirk and feign tolerance.
So I will write a poem like this. This is the voice
my pen is acquainted with.
This is what you get.