Featured Poem: Lock the Door

Sometimes thinking about the world we live in can give us both joy and heartbreak, but it can also give us the courage to stand up and shout about what we believe in. Whether your political views are the same as the person sitting beside you or entirely different, it is important to ensure that you do yourself proud. For most, this involves taking a stand against injustices such as sexism, racism and other horrible acts that people deal with on a daily basis. Lock the Door deals with this idea of having privilege, but also having the knowledge that these things happen around us. I caught up with chandelier-stars to learn more about the thought process that went into this poem!

Give us a quick summary of Lock the Door.

Lock the Door was about the privilege that we sometimes have to acknowledge in ourselves and our lives. We so frequently have a better situation than others. Somehow we think that just because racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, etc isn't directly happening to us, it means we don't have to talk about it. I think it's important to do the exact opposite of what Lock the Door says. Be loud, be bold, stand up for the people who need it. Use your privilege and acknowledge it. Help people, listen to people, speak to people. Don't let society silence you.

How did you choose the title for it?

I picked the title because I feel like that's how we often feel. If I close the door on this problem, it goes away. If I pretend this isn't happening, then it isn't happening. Right? We lock ourselves up and we lock the world out and neither is actually helping.

What was your favourite thing about writing Lock the Door?

I think writing Lock the Door was really cathartic for me. I was really angry about the world and I just felt good writing something that said, "Hey! I promise I see these problems and they make me angry. I don't want it to be like this. I don’t want the world to be like this."

Do you have any writing rituals that you follow when writing poems?

I don't have a ritual, but more of the opposite. I just let myself type and type and type, get it all out and then go back and edit. I don't want to edit my thoughts as they come.

What do you look for when reading works by other site members?

I look for originals in stories and for poems. I look for something shorter and easier to read. I'm not as selective for poems because they're so personal so I just try to read everything. Stories I'm particular about, but mainly because I'm jealous that I can't write them.

Is there anything you would like to say to anybody that reads your poems?

I guess thank you for reading them. Holy crap, how can this happen that you would read something I wrote? I don't write a lot or I don't share a lot so when I do, it's something I was so critical about and felt it was okay enough for sharing. So thank you so much.

Finally, do you have any other poems that you think people would enjoy?

Um, I don't have anything else like the Lock the Door - I don't usually get political which is what is so weird that I finally started doing that. Maybe I'll do more. I mean, please read more if you like my style, I just wrote This Is Hard so that's newer, but yeah.

Special thanks to Audrey T for editing!