freedom of the verse preface

so, before i post my poems on here, i'd like to let you guys know that, as i write sets of poems, i like to compile them into fake "albums." i just use my own pictures and make fake "tracklists" and whatnot, because it's kind of fun. what i'm going to do from here on out is, before i post each "album" on here, i'll post the "front and back covers" that i make and talk a little bit about each album and poem in general. let's start with this one, "freedom of the verse."

"freedom of the verse," released in october, was my first free-verse poetry album. i used to write more "rhythmic" poetry in my free time, but now i look back on those old poems and i don't really like them that much. writing in free-verse was something i got a bit more excited about, as it gave me more creativity to not feel "forced" when writing. when i would write "rhythmic" poems, i would literally just think of the first line and go with what rhymed afterward. writing in free-verse now gives me more of an ability to just write what comes to mind.

a lot of the poems on this "album" deal with more dark, occasionally moody topics, as i was not exactly feeling like my usual happy self while writing a lot of these poems. i don't often show this more sad side of myself to others, so writing these poems allowed me to kind of show a side of me some aren't really used to. here's a rundown of each poem, with a short summary as to what they are about.

1. my demons - i tend to overthink a lot, no matter what the situation is. this is occasionally a recipe for disaster, as it leads me to feel lazy and it kills my mood. i talk a little about that in this poem.

2. too much hate - this was a fictional story about suicide. some of it was inspired by an old friend of mine that very nearly committed suicide, but didn't actually do it. the story features a character feeling angry that a girl, who he had fallen in love with, killed herself because she was bullied by others and not accepted by her family. it was one that was really tough for me to write.

3. picture this - in this one, i talk a lot about the hate that exists in our world today. i wanted to make others imagine a world where everyone got along, regardless of who we are, and then paint a picture of a world where we do nothing but aimlessly hate one another.

4. blood - i wrote this one about the mass shooting that occurred in the las vegas strip on october 1st, 2017. i wrote it as a way of explaining that the violence in our world needs to stop, and that we need to stop the killing and stop the hatred.

5. me too - in the wake of several sexual assault/harassment scandals going around hollywood, there was a trend where people were encouraged to post "me too" as a way of showing that sexual assault and harassment is a very real issue. much like "blood," life inspired my poems.

6. my dear - this was the first free-verse poem that i wrote. it was written about a girl that i had a crush on. i very rarely develop romantic feelings for others, but the girl this poem is about is really special to me, and i talk a little bit about us here.

7. no likes - here, i talk about how i switched from writing "rhythmic" poems to writing free-verse poems and talk about how, even despite the fact that i don't often get "likes" on a lot of my posts, i'm still motivated to keep doing what i'm doing.

8. happy matt's back - after a long time of just not feeling like myself, this poem was basically my way of saying that i was finally starting to feel happy again. in it, i thanked the people that helped me to stay strong and keep trying my best, no matter how hard life got me down.

9. career - this one was honestly a little tough to write: in october of 2017, i had just quit my part-time job that i had worked at for almost 9 months. i won't go into full detail for personal reasons, but at the time, the job had been stressing me out emotionally and, one night, some rather scary events occurred inside the store that pushed me to my breaking point and made me say, "that's it, no more." however, that night, after quitting, the manager on duty (who, by the way, was very kind and understanding about the whole thing) told me that my store manager would call me about the whole thing the next day. as of this writing, it's been a little over a month and a half since i quit and i haven't gotten that call. in fact, i haven't heard a peep from my manager, despite being told i would hear from him. i was a bit angry about this, as i had felt like the lack of even a proper goodbye made those nearly 9 months worthless, and i wrote a poem detailing my frustrations.

10. break - as the last poem on the album, i purposely wrote this one with the intention of making it a shorter poem that felt more like a reflection on everything i had written. i ended off the poem by saying how happy writing had made me, but that i would be taking a short break from writing poems. the break lasted for about a month, i believe.