People, when they discover I’m a writer, often ask what I write about. I used to roll my eyes and explain how writers use everything as material. But I was thinking recently about the subject matter of various poems & stories either published or underway and what themes are at work.
- grief
- social issues
- discontented relationships
- insomnia
- entertainment and pop culture
- racial identity
- the blues
- transgression
- danger
- urban legends
- inclement weather
- political unrest
- fighting
- sports and exercise
- b-movies
- illness
- alcohol
- making ends meet
- marriage & domesticity
- politics
- love poems
- abandoned buildings
- the apocalypse
- the Midwest
- hip hop
Some subjects are barely projects, or unfinished stories that are underway but stalled out, and a couple things are just one or two poems into what I envision will be a longer series. I've also been thinking about the difference of approach when it comes to compilation (mixtape) books and project books and how the latter seems to be driven by intent from the start and the former slowly take shape during the process. But I suppose that's a blog entry for another day.