When I was younger, before doing artwork on my current account, I was very well known for very repetitive, badly crafted artwork which I did not really put that much effort into. I don’t always like to say it was bad because I do know people did like the art I made, but trust me when I say in the technical aspects, it was bad.

My artwork would often associate with roses and soon enough I was outcasted because I did not agree with somebody else. Soon enough, people noticed I wasn’t around very much. So then went forward, my attempt to befriend that person and hopefully have a truce.

Soon enough a fan of my artwork came to me, named Elizabeth. She stated she wasn’t happy with the way I was defending the girl I had originally disliked for being rude. I ignored her because I heard it was the best course of action. I was wrong.

I was then proceeded to be ‘ranted on’ or in other words be placed on public display for the rude behaviour I had shown, I came to realise I was not acting right. I was in fact, not being fair to everyone by biastly following this mean individual. I decided to cut ties with her and apologise to Elizabeth, in which I met my secondary friend, Heather.

We came together and talked and soon enough, we all began becoming friends. It is a true blessing to know, we are still friends to this day. I think they knew when they spoke to me, I wasn’t a bad person, I was just making a mistake blindlessly following a mean-hearted individual. I apologised to those I did wrong during the situation.

I was confused because some people were saying to ignore this group, to not talk to Elizabeth but in reality, I came to realise, that ignoring the issue made it worse. If you have a problem with someone it’s always best to battle that issue head-on.

The mean-spirited girl however, still to this day does not like me, even after multiple attempts to be-friend her and fix our bond. She now sees me as a two-faced backstabber, despite being openly honest to her about my feelings. However, sometimes, you just can’t please everyone.

This was the first time, I realised honesty was much more important than I had initally thought in my younger teen years.

This poem is structured in a Senryu form, it was interesting to write, definitely a bit of a puzzle to make, but I do believe it makes you think about what words are most important in a poem to prioritise.

When you play the game, it’s hard to get out of the game. Time passed and this perfect love at first sight began becoming faded. In truth, I was very concealed with how I felt, he wasn’t aware of how little he gave in contrast.

One person I really adored I ended up using pretty badly and shared a romantic love for them when hopes of my relationship had died, but I didn’t feel right. Essentially, I was so torn up and emotionally confused that it was selfish of me to consider dating as a whole at this time.

I took a break.

I did want it to work with my prior partner, but I lied to people, hurt people and in the end, I felt ashamed and embarassed of what I had done to everyone involved. Mixing shame and confusion is a bad time for anyone. It’s definitely not something fun to encounter.

I luckily still have my friend with me to this day and I treasure them as a friend. I do feel lucky to have my friends from many years prior come back into my life, but sometimes, you aren’t always ‘lucky’. So treasure those around you. Don’t do what I did, it was very narcissistic. I showed so little empathy and in the end that’s what left me alone.

Since then, this event taught me to treat people with respect, to not assume people’s lives are always ‘filled with sunshine’. I learnt to care for others as well as myself.

This poem is a Tanka poem, they are a little like haikus but they have a lot more syllables. I will admit, when researching I did notice sometimes Tankas show themes of nature alongside passion, so I wanted to really tackle a mixture of both.

Tankas weren’t easy to try first-time, I did enjoy some of the metaphors I used regarding the start of the poem. Definitely something I need to practice.

I did, reference an album I like a lot on purpose, I referenced Ocean Eyes which is an Owl City album I really adore.

This is actually a poem inspired by how much I currently am in love with the film 'La la land' and how many people most likely think I love it only for the romantic tropes, but in realistic viewpoints, I actually admire their characters individually much more.

Mia shows a lot of emotions in the regards to how I feel when I lose someone in my life and in a way I wanted to subtly replicate that emotion I feel in contrast to the romantic trope-following emotion of the masses. Sometimes, people genuinely like something more than what people would expect for.

A tanka about how much of a wonderful night I had with my new partner.

My family and I are huge fans of music, my Dad is into a lot of Rock, original RnB, my Mother into a lot of Pop, my oldest brother, David would share an interest for electronic, techno, trap based music, Bryan shared a love for American Rock music in particular, Joe is into a lot of celtic, calm music and then of course, Me, I was just into a bit of everything, and admittedly when younger, a lot of Country music like my Grandfather.

Music is such a beautiful part of life, I could never have imagined a life without music. I don’t think I can even get through a day without wanting to listen to at least one song. As we’ve got older, my eldest brother moved to America, while my other older brother, Bryan is here in the UK.

Bryan has a huge interest for guitars like our father and I really do hope the best for him in pursuing a potential music career. I know deep down he can definitely do some incredible things and I love how my family was just brought up on loving music.

I used to write a lot of songs as a kid, before I got into a lot of poetry writing, I would write songs based on how I felt, concepts I found interesting and genuinely to this day have a low-key singer-wannabe.

I did perform vocally live before, sadly I never really had the confidence to pick up an instrument other than the recorder and some piano, I hope I can one day revisit music instruments though, I do love the idea of making music, I just have no idea where I would start with that.

When writing this poem, I decided to use Pantoum form, I thought it was quite intriguing to have a poem form like this where there is a lot of repetition, I personally think it adds a lot of appeal to the poem as well as creativity.

When you hear music and choruses, you often get a lot of lyrics stuck in your head and while going through life, it’s very clear to see, a lot of people have that and there is no surprise I was one of those people who would hum to a song and suddenly blurt out a chorus. Having that sense of repetition within the words, felt like I was acknowledging music choruses.

Recently dealing with the loss of a relative.