In light of midterms coming up, I’ve noticed a very strong political undercurrent, the likes I have never witnessed before. Of course I’ve seen it during 2008 (age 10) , 2012 (age 14), and 2016 (age 18), but I’ve never seen this high stakes fervor in the midterms. I don’t intend to go in depth about the state of politics in our country, which I can happily discuss in person or in a message conversation. I’m intending to write about how this impacts me as a writer, and how I mused about this as I was writing the poem for my writing assignment.
I cast my first vote in 2016, and I voted for Hillary Clinton. In the aftermath of November 20th, I felt emotionally distraught. I was taking a Creative Non-fiction class at the time, and all I could write about was the election, and how Hillary Clinton was this figure who I’d looked up to ever since I could remember. I had even named one of my dolls after her. Yet Donald Trump was also a specter in my life. In New York City, my school bus would drive down the West Side Highway to get to school, and three of his Trump towers were there. I’d see them every day. I admittedly didn’t produce my best work during this time, but I figured I needed to explore different avenues to fully process what happened to me and what made people cast their vote for him. The alternative-pop music that I usually listened to didn’t really work for me, and I started listening to old country: Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt. It really moved me and helped me move on, in my opinion, from the horrifying outcome of the 2016 election.
Two years later I feel like I can finally speak my mind about politics. My poetry and writing in general since coming to Geneseo has inched more and more towards politics, and it’s a startling development. It’s part of my nature to be emotionally invested in politics, and while I can write (mostly) apolitical poetry, politics seems to be the most fruitful subject matter right now. Until we get to the results of the midterms, then we will see!
I’m happy to discuss politics in person or in another medium (email, text message, etc.) Let me know if anything’s unclear!