Spaces

It is interesting to find that two weeks have passed so quickly. I am awe-struck at the growth of us all as performers and I am truly learning much as a young 'un working with a team so skilled, not only in writing, but in years of working in performance and receiving critique. Two-thirds of the way into this tour I realise that as a performer receiving critique is not a nicety equivalent to sipping tea and having scones. Instead, receiving critique for your poem is like the uncomfortable process of having someone interrupt your quiet utopia and pin-point what about it makes it a sad reality. I make it sound crueler than it really is :-) but it is not a comfortable space. However, it is a necessary space that I am learning to negotiate in order to give my poetry a voice of its own to stand outside of me. I wish it was easier and that my responses to it less resembled a kid throwing toys out of a cot... However, for as long as I am human and in my early 20s I cannot superficially learn to man up and receive critique. But the more I let these fellow trustworthy artists into my space and the more I learn about the space they occupy - the more I realise that my poetry has to have a space of its own to grow outside of me...