It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. – ee cummings
Starting in childhood, Edward Cummings wrote one poem every day for fourteen years. At eight years old, he resolved to become a poet and by the time he died at 67, he was the second most widely read poet in the United States.
He was ee cummings, an avant-garde writer who shunned literary conventions such as capitalisation and punctuation to produce intense, hauntingly beautiful poetry.
Consistency to clarity?
Did writing every day for so long help ee cummings trust the unique expression of his voice?
I would love to be able to ask him. Such consistency certainly helps to reveal our voice, not just to the world but to ourselves.
Your voice isn’t the words you choose and the way you use them, although that’s part of it.
Your voice isn’t your personality (which I’ve written about before), although that’s part of it.
Your voice isn’t what you choose to write about and share with others, although that’s part of it too.
Your voice is the sum of all parts.
It is the expression of what matters to you: your purpose and your values, your expertise and your life’s journey.
It is the way you will be remembered.
Does your voice do justice to who you want to be and what you want to achieve in the world?
Something to think about.
Photo by Camille Minouflet on Unsplash
