I absolutely hate sharing my work in class, but unfortunately we usually have to do a lot of it. We were assigned to write a short poem. Before reading it aloud, it actually sounded kind of decent to me. But after class, I was sweating reading it back and realising how pretentious and over-flowery it sounded. I couldn’t believe I had read it out in front of like 25 people. My classmates had all done theirs in a humorous lighthearted tone and mine was so edgy it HURT.
I’ve been thinking about it for a solid week and it makes me want to die. I saved the poem as backup to a bunch of places and when I see it, I just instantly close the page. Any advice on getting over this!?
2 comments
Sounds like you are bothered by it because it is different to what most people did. But maybe it actually isn’t so bad. There are all different kinds of poems. Maybe tell a friend or person you trust how you feel and ask them to read the poem and tell you their opinion. Worst case you are still right but everyone will forget soon anyway or you were wrong about it being cringe.
If all of your classmates had written a lighthearted poem, they probably don’t care about poetry much. Combined with all the other stuff people think of and experience in a day, your poem, even if they found it “cringe”, slipped out of their mind the moment they left class. So, be comforted knowing you’re the only one thinking over it still.
But, I definitely sympathize with you on freaking out whenever I see any of my old writing. After some time, the pain of remembering it should probably fade away. If not, I suggest just opening up the poem and forcing yourself to read and bask in all of the pretentiousness. Pick it apart and feel immense dread, and keep rereading it until its lost its impact on you. It probably isn’t as bad as you remember it is – and if it is, no one remembers except you.