Dottie Lo Bue: "between me and the notes apP"

Hi Penumbra Readers and Friends, 

I’ll introduce myself quickly! I’m Dottie, a visual artist and writer. I’ve had the great pleasure of interacting with the Penumbra community in a few different ways—through being selected as one of the first Penumbra Press Chapbook authors (still surreal), joining the writing club, submitting my artwork, and now writing a blog post. Let’s see how this latest venture goes! 

It seems like the perfect time to reflect on the story of how I accidentally became a poet, and I find myself a believer in good timing these days. April 1st will mark exactly a year since I picked up writing again after years and years without even daring to consider myself a writer. It also marks the beginning of National Poetry Month. Connected? Oh yes.

Basically, last April 1st, in an unassumingly kairotic moment, I logged into an old Instagram account. I’d forgotten it even existed, but past-me had followed some writers on it at some point, and as soon as I opened it up, I saw that they were participating in a National Poetry Month challenge called “Escapril," where the account @letsescapril provides 30 poetry prompts, one for each day of the month. What were the odds that I’d learn about this challenge on the day that it began? I don’t know, honestly. But the prompts were gorgeous and I decided to honor the coincidence by trying to see if I could just make one poem happen. I told myself that no one would ever have to read it, that whatever happened was between me and the notes app, so it was allowed to be terrible. 

Well, I wrote the poem. And then I wrote the next one, to my genuine surprise. And I am a sucker for a good streak, so of course I had to continue. (For reference, my Duolingo streak is at 539 days as I write this. Please send help.) I finished the month out and explored every prompt, and over the course of 30 poems and 30 days, with the support of a community of writers also partaking in the challenge, I learned to really look at words and to allow them to look back again.

Once the challenge was over, I did not keep writing a poem every day. That wasn’t sustainable long term, but over the past year I have used the same methods for writing that I practiced during last April to write some poems at a slower pace that I’m really happy with. 

Everyone writes differently, but my favorite way to work is to throw every scrap stream-of-consciousness thought I have on any given day into a Google Doc titled “Lines,” as they come. It can be a single word or a series of lines that already flow together. Some of it makes no sense at all. It doesn’t have to. Some lines are used quickly. Others stick around for a lot longer. Sometimes I notice a whole poem in there that appeared over a number of days from thoughts that I didn’t know were related until I read them in order. Other times, it’s more intentional, and I search through and rearrange and collage different pieces together or improvise off of different elements I’d made notes on prior. It’s a lot less pressure than staring at a blank page and trying to come up with a whole poem on the spot. It reminds me of toning the canvas for a painting or starting with the big shapes of a drawing or sculpture before honing in on the finer details. This is essentially my entire process, all secrets spilled! 

Now, maybe unsurprisingly, I’m working more and more on figuring out how best to integrate my visual and written practices. My art and writing feel really connected and like they feed off of each other. They explore similar themes: namely anxiety, the surreal, and a search for gentleness. I don’t know what this integration will ultimately look like, but I’m excited to find out.

I think the biggest takeaway I can parse from all of this, though, is to follow the weird coincidences that point you in the direction of the goals you are afraid to have yet. You just may end up finding some motivation along the way and writing a whole chapbook less than a year after you were afraid to even pick up the proverbial pen. (Weirder things have happened!) I will say, also, that another big part of me finding writing again, has been through falling in love with reading again. If you feel you aren’t ready to write yet, read, read, read. And then, if you’re anything like me, you’ll find yourself wanting to take part.

I hope some of you will take part in some writing during National Poetry Month and keep at your current practice, or join me in accidentally stumbling into one! I’d love to hear about it if you do! 

Author

Dottie Lo Bue 
Instagram: @dottielll
Website: dottielobue.com 
Chapbook: https://issuu.com/penumbraonline/docs/_final_on_birds_wings_roads_silence_