WRITING & THE FUTURE

It's intuitive that a poet would constantly be writing, but poems aren't the only kind of writing taking place.

As of now, I am planning on obtaining an MFA in Poetry and then a Ph.D. in order to teach English at a collegiate level. I have wanted to be a poet since high school; I also can’t ignore the desire to continuously read, learn, and write that permeates my identity as a student. I think becoming a professor will allow me to remain in academia and give me the space to write creatively.

That being said, it is obvious that I will be doing an exorbitant amount of writing in the future. Applying to MFA and PhD programs will require writing samples; further, the work done within these years in graduate school will amount to book-length collections of poems. Remaining in graduate school will additionally allow me to develop my scholarly prose through essays about the literature I am reading.

Inevitably, I will have to write about my authorial self and the work I have produced in order to defend it and market myself as a poet. In my career as a professor, I will be constantly writing: crafting emails, course descriptions, syllabi, responses to assignments, etc. Still, I want my own creative work as a poet to take precedent; that is, I want to focus on writing meaningful poems first and foremost because my poems are reflections of my own humanity and through them, I learn about myself and the world around me. Without writing poems, I would be incredibly lost.

Writing poems might seem like a frivolous endeavor to some (perhaps it might be, but frivolous things so often bring us joy). I know that the professional writing I do in order to make my dream of being a working poet is just as important as the poems themselves. My designed writing portfolio that I will continuously work on over the next few months will be a location that showcases my identity as a writer. It will be creative and illustrative of who I am.

So, in a way, this portfolio will be a way to market me as a professional writer. I plan to maintain my poetic voice throughout all of my writing, which so often toes the line between poem and scholarly theory. With this authentic voice consistent, I can illustrate how my writing is unique, noteworthy, and important to those who read it. The portfolio is a home for the words; I will cultivate it with care and precision.