Whenever I listen to music, I’m searching for emotional devastation.
Before I hunker down to write, early in the morning, while the world is still dark, I will often go on long drives, blasting music that incites these feelings; those that break down my walls and allow me to reach a place of raw vulnerability. Particularly if I’m writing poetry.
Recently, Indigo De Souza’s All of This Will End has been that album for me. It is well-balanced in its dichotomies, lyrical and poetic, and, on the heels of heartache, after leaving the place I’ve spent the majority of my adult life, starting over in a new city, this album resonates.
My favourite track, “Younger and Dumber,” is about reflection, how we evolve, how we look back on our experiences and think, I would never allow that to happen to me again. These are the sentiments I hoped to evoke when writing my poem, “Mo(u)rning.”
Poetry is such a personal medium. Sometimes I’m shocked that I even allow it to go out into the world. It feels like giving a part of myself away, and I often wonder why I do it. But then I hear a song, something that allows me to feel connected, to identify the discomfort within myself – endurance, nostalgia, bittersweet grief – a song that someone has so clearly infused with parts of themselves, and I feel inspired, my fear dissipates, bravery returns, and I go on writing.
— Katherine Alexandra Harvey is the author of Quiet Time. Her work has appeared in Queen’s Quarterly, The Malahat Review, Grain, Plenitude, Exile Quarterly, Quill and Quire, Existere, 49th Shelf, Riddle Fence, and The Newfoundland Quarterly, among others. Her first poetry chapbook is forthcoming with Anstruther Press
You can find Katherine Alexandra Harvey's poem "Mo(u)rning" in Issue 301 Autumn 2024. Order the issue now:
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