Just last month, the student literary journal at CWU, Manastash, accepted submissions for their 2022 edition. They accepted submissions of all sorts of student works, like paintings, photographs, short stories and poems. As someone who has just recently gained a deeper appreciation for poetry, I decided to submit a poem based on their theme, Wellness.
My goal for my poem was to write about the moments between moments, or the little parts of our day that don’t mean a lot on their own, but really add up. I picked personal experiences and factors from my own life to talk about, hoping that they would inspire readers to think of their own tiny parts of their lives that add up. Hence the name of my poem, ‘Snippets’.
Although I did not make it into this edition, I’m still proud of my poem and am excited to keep writing. I plan on submitting to future editions in the hope that I will continue to be motivated and maybe one day be published.
Snippets
A playlist of five songs, from my childhood or later, full of sentiment and calming messages, falling asleep to them on loop
Needing sleep, but calling you instead, staying up way too late and then waking up way too early, not really regretting either
A box of memories, sorted by year, letters from family, friends, teachers, people past and present, yearbooks and birthdays and holidays
Relistening to childhood books, remembering why I loved them, discovering new elements, being transported back to who I was when I read them first
Hosting friends and playing games, yelling and laughing and making jokes at all of our expenses, enjoying the human contact and getting something from it
Running my virtual farm, making an organized spreadsheet to categorize the things I have left to do, finding satisfaction in the completion
Putting on a face mask and a musical, forcing myself to fold the loads of laundry that have piled, singly poorly and dancing worse
Abstract doodling to do absent-mindedly, a podcast playing in my ears, adding details in lines that cover the entire page, filling it with a sense of oneness
Polaroids taped to my closet doors, documenting dogs and friends and weddings and birthdays, an old art form given new life on my wall
The quiet spaces I find, moments in between moments, where I can breathe, find myself, and reminisce on things that are and once were.