At A Loss

Do you listen to music while you write? Has a specific song or music artist ever influenced one of your stories, poems, etc.? This has happened with a number of my published poems. Thus, Poetry & Song is a limited-run series where I share one of my published poems and the song that “helped me write” it. I also offer insights into why I chose that particular piece of music, as well as any other inspirations for the poem.

With the past two Poetry & Song posts, I’ve realized – or, rather, remembered – how personal some of my sources of inspiration have been. Today’s is no different. A few times while writing this post, I felt… well, uncomfortable, but not in a negative way. It wasn’t so much the idea of sharing the story behind this poem, since other people in real life already know it. Rather, it was the act of revisiting that inspiration, and reliving the warring emotions tied to it, that made a heart-wrenching situation from the past fresh again.

So, yes, “At A Loss” isn’t a happy poem. Neither is the song that helped me write it. But what makes this Poetry & Song combination unique is that, together, they provided some much-needed insight on an unraveling friendship. If it makes any sense, this post chronicles the first time I learned an important life lesson from my own poetry.

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More good news on the poetry front today: My poems “At A Loss” and “Writing A Memoir” have been published at The Eunoia Review!

The Eunoia Review is an UK-based online literary magazine that is “committed to sharing the fruits of ‘beautiful thinking’.” What makes this publication unique is that it publishes writers’ work on a rolling basis instead of monthly, quarterly, etc. Two new pieces of writing – either poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction – are posted at The Eunoia Review every day. Readers can also check out the ever-growing contributors archive and sign up for email alerts when new work is published.

As for the poems themselves, “At A Loss” and “Writing A Memoir” are very different from the two pieces published earlier this year at Underground Voices. One is about grief, confusion, and (as implied by the title) loss; the other is more optimistic, reflective, and focused on the craft of writing. (Proves how nerdy I am about writing, huh? *lol*)

A trivia tidbit for you: “Eunoia” is a real word! It’s derived from the Latin word εὔνοια (which means “well mind” or – surprise! – “beautiful thinking”). It’s also the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels.

Click on the links below to read the two published poems:

“At A Loss”

“Writing A Memoir”

Enjoy! And feel free to comment on the pieces at The Eunoia Review or here in response to this post.

~ Sara