The Voice

Good morning one and all.

It's voice day.

Today I am going to talk about the conscious and unconscious part of my voice.

My voice can be very conscious especially if the material is technical in nature, but my voice can be very unconscious too.

I think some people would argue that no one can ever be completely aware of their voice. I think this is likely true.

I have found with my own writing that the more emotional the material is the less conscious I am of my voice. It is easier for me to be very objective with my writing when it is technical--the grammar and tone and style then become my paramount concerns.

But when I am writing poetry, for example, I am somewhere else in my head. Of course I still think about grammar, tone and style, but I am also trying to convey emotions, feelings and an essence that does not have to sound like anything else I have ever written. That is likely why I love writing poetry so much.

Technical writing is a corset and poetry is flip-flops, for me.

This does not mean that because I am not bound by dictates that my poetry is not serious for me. It is.

In fact, I doubt I could maintain my sanity without it. Needless to say I take it very seriously for that reason alone, but there is something to be said for feeling completely free to express yourself any way you choose. How often do we feel that free in life? I would say not often enough! (This is likely the reason why I often dream of speeding in fast cars. Pure freedom.)

Society puts lots of constraints on what we can do, but what we can think is our own.

Poetry rids my body of the taboo, scary, intense, violent, turbulent emotions that I was raised to suppress. Allowing me to then feel and express all my other emotions as well.

I am thrilled that I found poetry as a budding adolescent girl. It has kept me on an even keel with myself since then and has added a dimension to my life that I haven't always had outside of myself: Freedom.