Fun story...

I started a new blog.
Mostly because this one is more like a random personal diary of random dramaticness... I may still post about things occasionally, but I wanted a place to post my poetry with more accountability and more structure than revising this blog could offer. so...

https://probablyametaphor.wordpress.com/

That's the new blog...

Please follow if you can! If you follow any of my social media accounts I will probably post updates there as well so feel free to do that!

Thanks for being the human you are!


Much... Love probably?
-Winter

How Does One Even Title Poetry?

October 9th, 2017

Lately, I love the little things

Lately, I can’t ignore them

Lately, I also attempt to scorn them

The smile of friendship starting

The smile of a joke continued

The smile perhaps of misunderstanding

Misunderstood in the past. Now notwithstanding?

Misunderstood, the fear of it, taking over my planning

Misunderstood because of fear of misunderstanding

Living too far into the future

Living with my fears of bringing my past along

Living cannot happen if I drag this on

Subdued thoughts

Subdued actions

Subdued for too long brings compression 

Compression, holding back my heart

Compression, keeping myself from ever giving my heart

Compression, lurking in the corner to explode, implode

Hopes that I have once had, moved on

Hopes that moving on is no longer my forever journey

Hopes that I may rest, that I myself am who I really am

The longing mixed with patience

Patience mixed with fear

Fear mixed with longing

Spinning. Around. Stopping. 

The words of my heart 

The beats of my heart with 

One glance

A tone of voice

My name

Airplanes and Fireflies

Airplanes and Fireflies

By Winter Burnett June 21, 2017

Stars and fireflies. The tiny lights that light the way. 

Airplanes and cell towers. Are they the ones that get in the way? 

Technology has this hold on me... that you don't see. 

It has the ability to connect you to me.

When will I stop pretending? 

Can I ever change my ways? 

These secrets I hide?

The lies I hide behind? 

The flicker of hope a like brings.

That twinge of regret after a snap.

One retweet would be worth a hundred words.

That tagged status update, a million.

When will I stop pretending? 

Can I ever change my ways? 

These secrets I hide?

The lies I hide behind? 

The humor is geared towards my favorites.

I have a collection of admirers.

They don't know the real me.

And those who do, I fear don't want to.

When will I stop pretending? 

Can I ever change my ways? 

These secrets I hide?

The lies I hide behind? 

I fear that I'm some peoples' annoying, unfollowed follower.

But I don't fear the internet, I fear the place we call real life. 

How do I leave this fake world and focus on the now? 

How do I draw the line and not use it to hide behind? 

So many thoughts. 

I should start another journal. 

I should find a friend. 

But which ones are like me? Pretend?

Casual poetry I write when I could be doing other things... Why do I always like my procrastinated poetry the best??? Also note that the punctuation I use is not always correct... I mostly use it for emphasis and poetic detail... Don't sue me. Thanks. Also the more I read this the more I find it obnoxious and dramatic. Imma post it anyway. Thanks for reading Winter's poetry and random comments on said Winter's poetry. Have a lovely night/day/existence.

True and Correct

What is truth?
That’s a long question.
While we are not going to attempt to solve this question here I am going to attempt to bring up some questions. Questions are pretty neat.

I think when I create art (and blog posts...) I strive to be correct, and rarely do I strive for truth.
Let’s throw out some definitions so that this is less confusing. 

“truth” what is 100% real, perhaps "out there" and never fully understood by human minds.
“correct” what is the right answer, whether politically correct at a certain time, or a college degree understating of how the human mind works over a high school diploma with one science class.

I think I often look at the word truth and think about a true/false test. It is correct or it is not.

You are reading this blog post       T/F
You are not skydiving right now   T/F
You are not a penguin                    T/F

The answers (unless you are a skydiving penguin, who is having someone read this to you) are all marked T for true. So that means the answers are all correct. Does this mean they are all true?

(Ha! All good tests have trick questions like this!) Let's continue.

Women should not vote                                   T/F
Slavery is biblical, therefore permissible        T/F
People who are different from you are lesser  T/F

How would you answer these questions? At one point they were all considered true (and in some cases people may still consider them true), but true here simply means correct at a certain point in time. As we (I guess here we means all of humanity) grow as a people we all get the chance to discover and learn. There are many reasons people have changed their minds on things, but just because they were considered true then does that mean “truth” has changed? No, I think that we are still learning truth, and “correct” has changed.


Let’s take an example from my life. Because that is fun.

When I was 16 I wrote a worship song, multiple actually, they all sounded like crap. Not only because they were some of the first songs I recorded (I knew 4 chords and did not know how to strum), but because now I know that the heart behind them was looking for fame and they were not written as actual worship (that's a whole other blog post). I used phrases in popular songs and catchy rhymes, but none of the things I had written actually spoke to what I was dealing with when I wrote them.

 “truth”      what is 100% real, perhaps "out there" and never fully understood by human minds.
And “correct”    what is the right answer at a certain point in time with a certain amount of information.

Those worship songs I wrote were a limited form of "truth", but perhaps not “correct" by my understanding now. On the “correct” scale they were written by a 16 year old who was stuck in one world where life was easy(ish) and her understanding of God very limited, but on the scale of “truth” they were written by a 16 year old who was stuck in one world with those same things still affecting her songs. The 16 year old was living life and did not know how to convey how she felt through song (and perhaps did not know what she was feeling because others told her what she should feel), she was living life but did not know as much as her 21 year old self.

In the same way now I am trapped by trying to create things that are correct and not things that are true. I want to skip ahead to finding what is correct, which leaves me in fear of making something I will regret later if it was found out wrong.

It sort of reminds me of the debates of whether to keep the memorials of the American Civil War (are they still being debated? Perhaps I'm behind on popular news...) On one hand the memorials are correct thinking of the times, but as a nation (mostly) we know some of the memorials made in those times are not true. So like my old songs were really gross to listen to, it’s hard to think that we keep up memorials of events and ideas that are really gross to remember. And it’s worse when the “gross” is devaluing human life and not simply cringing at a teenager's theology and guitar skills. I don’t want to be insensitive to either side of the argument (and I am not claiming to understand it fully), but I do want people to think beyond the ideas of keeping or taking down a memorial.

Can we keep things that were once considered correct in order to later convey the truth?
Or must we destroy the past in attempts to reconcile in the future?

If you like questions that seem more answerable:

What is something you changed your beliefs on?
How do you deal with the views and ideas that were once correct but you now think are wrong?
Or do you think it is always 100% bad to change what you first were taught and believed and how do you deal with people like me who seem to be making truth stretchy? ;)

Right now this is what I think is correct... But is it true? I guess we will find out someday... :P

"Perfect Creation"

"Perfect Creation" 

By Winter Burnett 3-12-16

Attempts at perfection on an incomplete grid...

Creativity on a finite level

True inspiration expressed within Limits

Is creativity defined by limits?

Creativity expands the limits...

What we create has and has never been before

Perfection and creativity are the same

Both unachievable. Both strived for.

Creativity by definition redefines itself

Perfection is freedom from fault.

Creativity redefines faults to beauty

Creativity and Perfection are both paradoxes

They are opposites and the same

Both guided by rules

Both trapped on an incomplete 

Grid.

You know. Just casual thoughts about perfection and creativity. The picture I drew made me think the thoughts, so I included it. Sometimes I draw things and pretend to be philosophical!!! Woo!

tell me you loved me

before i die would you tell me you loved me? 

would you tell me that i mean more to you than a piece of paper with a grade? 

that i am not just the woman who was behind the counter at the bookstore? 

that i was not just another musician in the orchestra? 

that i am not defined by my showing up each night and doing a great job as stage manager? 

that i am not defined by my terrible skill at being a perfectionist? 

that i am not simply a singer of latin music in a chamber? 

that i am not defined by how my day is going? 

that i am not defined by a question as stupid as “how are you doing”? 

before i die would you tell me you loved me? 

can you please tell me while i am still living? 

can you tell me who i am and not what i am?

can you not ask me what you can do for me, but tell me who i am to you?

can you please combat these lies that i don’t know where they come from but they always do?

can you not be my savior, but can you remind me of who is?

before i die, while i am still living can you be human? 

can you please love me while i breathe and not only express regret if i died?

before i die would you tell me you loved me?

Training Wheels

"Training Wheels"

By Winter Burnett 1/24/17

I watch as the tires spin. 

I watch your face as you grin. 

You ride away from me so fast. 

Your new ideas seem rash.  

But here I am left on the ground 

Here I'm left. Not even a sound

Do I make

While you pedal and brake. 

I choke on the dust 

as I try to choke back the tears. 

You left me back

I'm no longer of use after all of these years. 

You found your freedom. 

What's left of me is gone.

I coalesce my feelings

Into a box called "healing."