The Warrior Poet

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I have a long word doc that contains bits of poems and stories and ideas. Sometimes, right as I’m falling asleep an idea will come to me and I write it down in a notebook that lives on my nightstand. The next day, I plop whatever I wrote into the word doc. One evening, I wrote the words “Warrior Poet” in the margins of an otherwise full sheet of paper, and this is what came later. I’m not sure where it came from, or how, or why, but I’ve learned to not question such things.

“In order to write about life first you must live it.”―Ernest Hemingway

Those with interesting lives tell great stories, which is why those who have survived some great hardship or tragedy often find themselves overflowing with words. Humans were born to tell stories, and we’ve been doing so since the beginning of our time. Poetry is the language of the warrior. Poems are the crux of honest, musical, storytelling. Or at least, they should be.

But, there are plenty of dishonest stories and endless terrible poems. Sometimes, poets look for hardships where there are none. Someone, one time, might have applauded us for playing the victim so we do that, over and over, even though we are not victims, or could easily choose not to be. A real poet, a warrior poet, is aggressively introspective, almost to a fault.