by Puneet Kumar
Please welcome Puneet to the Writers Journey Blog this week with a relevant feature about using our writing to help deal with everyday life!
My Writing is My Creative Escape
Life is simple in nature, I think, but there are always ways to make it complicated. There is always something that can drive you crazy. Realities of life sometimes seem too harsh. It is the time I try to use writing as an escape from my realities. I try to write something beautiful that lets me feel good, that lets me express myself, and most importantly that lets me turn my life into a work of art.
Turning life into a work of art is not easy but I try to do it all by writing. Every problem in my life tips me off about the coming opportunities as it holds lessons. In fact, problems in life often give us choices to make. On one hand, it allows us to choose wounds, hurt, sense of loss, betrayal, bitterness, complaints, etc., and continue living while looking at our sorrowful breasts, or on the other hand, it allows us to raise our heads and take lessons, create opportunities and move ahead with the fast-changing world.
Well, it takes courage, patience, and perseverance to put life on a path of growth, understanding your challenges and turning them into steppingstones, and moving ahead regularly in life. Once you learn to move, you are unstoppable.
But whenever you come across unpalatable incidents that can trigger much bitterness and anger definitely, you can’t escape instantly. You need time to heal. There is a lot at that moment that simply can stir you deeply. During such a time, I often try to find something interesting to read or write. You can say, I do this as an exercise to calm my mind and live by changing my focus.
Needless to say, sometimes I succeed, and sometimes fail badly. But life always moves and learning to move is always important. Writing helps me to move, and I get back to my past to write and have a microscopic view with my creative energies to see the past work differently as if there is something at the moment that I need to learn. When I write, I feel very peaceful within.
I think inner peace is more important in life than anything else. Most people do prayers to find peace during their tough times. I do writing. Apart from writing poems, I love to write short stories and dabble. I once decided to write paranormal stories, just in 6 words, in two sentences, and stories within 100- 300 words. It was an interesting time.
Mentally, I started to live in a haunted place. I forgot about my real-life’s problems. I stepped into a new world of ghosts. Ghosts became my friends. I started searching for them in every possible place. One day I went to the ground floor of my home, which had been empty for a while. A layer of dust was on the floor everywhere, yet I asked myself how it may feel if there were a footprint of someone there. I shivered with this thought.
I got my one story (which was luckily published recently –The world of myth Magazine). Writing one story leads to another and like that soon I had thirty-nine micro-stories and I self-published my book titled, “Stranger Things Happen.” Soon I wrote stories in the horror genre. And two horror stories are yet to be self-publish.
We, humans, are sentient and we often feel things deeply and so it adds to creativity that you have never thought of. Life is not all about money, success, party but it is a mixture of everything and creating stories from them in an amazing mental adventure. Writing things from our day-to-day life is an amazing experience.
I love writing anything and everything. I love all types of writing, even articles for a magazine; however, poetry writing is my first love. It is very close to my heart. I pour my heart into poetic words and it feels like magic. It feels like ointments to my wounds. Words solace me. They let me convey, beg, plead, and complain even from the creator and let me feel the presence of God within and near me.
I feel happy after writing my poem as if I pick each word delicately and place one after another in order to create a way for my tears to find comfort, for my anger and bitterness to find a punching bag, and for my happiness to reach the seventh heaven.
I sometimes believe that in this big world, where we all sometimes feel alone, morose, frustrated, and helpless but thank God, there is poetry to give me company, to express my inner turmoil, commotion, and horror.
Life is easier when on one hand it exposes you before its rough edges and on another hand, it gives ways to express, deal with and have solace through poetry. Poetry gives me such comfort. It gives me words for expressing the depth of love and ways to bear the weight of separation. It lulls a sense of relief that creates a space in my heart to accept life as it is.
Acceptance gives power and it helps to meet the odds of life, face dissolution after dissolution, and let go of what is unworthy in life. This allows me to stay connected with myself, with my sweetness in life and the other range of emotions of mine. I feel how true it is, after all, “Life is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound of fury, signifies nothing.” by William Shakespeare.
Dark times come in everyone’s life, no matter how intelligent and gifted you are, life spares no one. Probably it is also in its nature of life but in such a pass of time life shows its real gift that is worth bearing all. I found an amazing line from a poet…
“All those days that came and went, little did I know that they were my life.” Stig Johansson
Author Bio: Puneet Kumar is a full-time poet, writer, and relationship and happiness coach. He writes poems, short stories, novels, and self-help books. He has self-published 15 books. He is published in several anthologies. His story is published in the anthology “Six feet From Tomorrow” His poetry is published in the anthology “Blood and Sand” “Scentsibility” “Poetry Leave” and others. He is also published in Spillwords.com. He loves to write on subjects like relationships, healthy living, food and nutrition, wine, lifestyle, or anything that adds positive light to life. He was first published in Debonair magazine in India in May-June issue 2000 which he considers beginner’s luck.
What a terrific article Puneet. I love how you have found those paths to publication. There are many, a place for every story and poem... It is indeed an exciting time for writers.
Great interview enjoyed learning about you and how you view things. I find therapy in poetry myself. And I believe you have to live life to wrote about it. I'm not into horror story's but I'm sure yours are really good. Thanks for sharing your perspective with us.
Oh, wow!! I love this Puneet and agree wholeheartedly with every word you've written here. Thank you so much for sharing these inspiring thoughts. I for one really appreciate them :)
Very interesting how you actually use writing as therapy in life. I believe many do that. I myself feel a reassuring sense of accomplishment after having written something and polished it to publishable quality. Thanks for sharing your life vision with us. All the best.
Puneet, you have a wonderful sense of self when you write and I am able to relate to most of what you say. I say most, because I must admit, I'm not into ghosts or their stories. We are also opposite in writing, I prefer stories over poetry. I do write it, but I practically turn myself inside out to do it, whereas stories come much more easily. I greatly admire the people who write such beautiful poetry. Thank you for sharing with us and Elaine, thank you for having Puneet on your blog.