Like my artwork, I don't recall when I first began writing poetry (or writing creatively in general, for that matter). What might be my first poem was discovered in a small stack of note paper in the old desk in my room. It was a rather vast, multi-stanza poem covering a significant fraction of the notepaper (it even had dashes in it--the earliest record I have of using--and understanding how to use--dashes) from sometime in middle school. My best estimate puts it at seventh or eighth grade.

I began writing poetry seriously in late high school, culminating with "Treaty" my senior year (most likely my best poem of that time). I grabbed a page at the International Library of Poetry's website and even got a few poems published in their books and CDs. In undergrad, I wrote a poem every couple months or so, depending on my mood and emotions at any given time. Finally, my last semester, I had time (so I thought, ha ha) to take the intro creative writing class, which I had been wanting to take. Unfortunately, I feel that experience did more harm than good, as I almost stopped writing poetry after graduating.

Despite these setbacks, I'm still literatively creative at times, though not nearly as much as I used to be. And I'm well aware that my "talent" for poetry is severely lacking; I hope readers of this enjoy these poems anyway.