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How I Survived 2020, I Wrote Poetry
Sometimes we need to just write for ourselves
You would think that during such apocalyptic times that the best thing a writer can do is, well… write about it, but that is not always the case. We all felt the 2020 blues, we are still feeling it. The pandemic and the daily Covid-19 death tolls in the news has also taken a toll on our mental health — no one can honestly say it hasn’t affected them either directly or psychologically.
Last year I became so depressed I stopped writing, mostly. As the walls closed in around me while I scrambled to complete academia deadlines and teach students who were forced to stay at home during lock-down restrictions. It wasn’t like there wasn’t much to write about — 2020 was on par with some of the best post apocalyptic dramas out there. But I couldn’t write a word of non-fiction. The feeling of being completely immobile and useless, as if anything you do is a pointless act, is debilitating. I would just stare at a blank screen for an hour and then close my laptop, month after month. This resulted in a long term feeling of guilt and powerlessness.
The problem with stopping writing is that it can be much harder to start again if that block (whatever it may be) is given time to grow. After almost a year of no writing I had to analyze my feelings of guilt surrounding this…
