Blossom Poem (I heart me)

*NOTE:  For those of you who may check this blog daily -- or even weekly/every so often --(first off, THANK YOU!! -- I know blogs are probably somewhat "passe", so I appreciate if you follow!), just wanted to give a little update re: the 100 Day Challenge... I'm taking a bit of a break. (will explain later).

For now, am sharing this:

This post is fairly apt for today, with it being the first day of Spring!

Since March last year, I started composing poetry. It all started out with a week-long challenge of a short meditation first, listening to a poem (which set the theme), then prompts to journal about whatever we felt.

I've been trying to get into the habit of journaling (for years!), but a few things stop me: 1) I don't get the therapeutic feeling from it. Sometimes I get clarity, but I'm hoping for that healing aspect. Maybe it's happening and I just don't realize it. I actually try nighttime journaling, to set the tone for my sleep. 2) the second issue is me forgetting. I need to just make time, and I get distracted with other tasks throughout the day. and finally 3) My hand cramps up!

I say this in all my correspondence to others: the reason for my typed up letters vs. handwritten penmanship is to save my hand for lettering. Even just a page-long written letter is hard on my hand. Maybe if i held a stress ball in the other? 

Another issue is that my brain is trying to output more than my handwriting can handle.

ANYway... Back to my poetry.

In doing this type of meditative journaling, I wanted to take parts of what I wrote and letter them in my healing journal, however, when i started pulling out my words, poetry emerged!

Some of it is prose, but most of it rhymes, which I have fun with. 

This one is from January:

At first, I started with the "scrap" piece of art (in the center):

The center piece was from when I was just playing/sketching. I loved it so, and wanted to do something with it, so I tried lettering this poem around it.

However, I think it looks too cluttered.

(Not sure why I did this, but the small art piece says, "i" in the center of the "stem", with the heart as the bloom, and "me" at the bottom -- the "root"? if you will...  😊 -- "i heart me".)

So, b/c it's now Spring, I decided to letter "i heart me" in florals. (pp):

and here it is b4 adding shading:

Below is the empty space before:

Here is my poem w/out the art. As you can see, I used various lettering. The poem reads:

Blossom and bloom, Keep Shining Through

Show your true self, Let others make room.

Release expectations, give yourself grace,

And always remember, 

You're ALLOWED to take space.

Close-ups:

Not bad italic!

pp

fp

b nib for "expectations"

Keep Blooming, folks!  :)