Old Work

It is a universally parroted truism that all writers hate their old work. And I mostly don’t. I’m not just saying that to be contrary, I’m mostly fine with my old creative work. Not of all of it, but in general it reflects where I was at the time.

Most people would cringe at the phrase “the poetry I wrote in high school”. In fact in general that is just an AWFUL combination of words, but when I look back I mostly find stuff that I’m glad I wrote at the time, even if I wouldn’t want to share it now. And I’m not going to. Maybe that’s why I’m able to be kind towards them, I alone get to see them. If an artist puts juvenilia out into the world, I suppose it makes sense that they’d be ashamed of that. If it’s something that doesn’t reflect you as an artist now, but can viewed by anyone in the age of Blu-Ray and streaming, that feeling of shame is something I understand.

I see my old poems and stories like a photo album. Not something to be ashamed of, but something I can look back on and think “oh that’s where I was at that point.” They reflect a piece of who I was. And while I have mixed feelings on who I was, I quite like the stuff that guy made.