IMPERFECT II poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer explains that when she needs to change perspective, she writes poems:
Specifically, I listen very carefully to the language I am using and ask myself if it is serving me. If it is not, I change the metaphor. For instance, when I was going through a hard time, I heard myself telling people over and over, “I think I am being tested.” Then I realized that the test metaphor was not working for me—if life was a test, I was failing. Instead of it being a test, I began to think of it as a path. And when I hike, I always like the longest, steepest, hardest trails. So that is what life was giving me. Changing perspective means changing the story I was telling myself—changing the metaphor. Poetry is so great at that. The other thing I do: go walk. Sometimes for hours. Alone or with someone else. Moving outside is essential for my sanity.
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer lives on the banks of the San Miguel River near Telluride, Colorado. She has written a poem every day since 2006 and you can find them posted daily at A Hundred Falling Veils. She co-hosts Emerging Form (a podcast on creative process), Secret Agents of Change (a surreptitious kindness cabal) and Soul Writer’s Circle. Her poetry has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, PBS Newshour, O Magazine, Rattle, American Life in Poetry and on river rocks she writes on then leaves around town. She has 13 poetry collections. Her most recent collection, Hush, won the Halcyon Prize. Naked for Tea was a finalist for the Able Muse Book Award. One-word mantra: Adjust.
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