I’m keeping the intro short this week, as most of the reflections I want to talk about this week are better housed in the “From Me” section. It’s been a great week, with last weekend giving me lots to think about in terms of my approach to writing and getting as many great pieces as I can to you. With all that said, let’s look at something…

From Poets Past

I spoke about one of Poetic Outlaws own poems in last week’s newsletter, but this week he introduced me to a poem by Anaïs Nin entitled “Some Never Awaken”. Having had some profound realisations regarding what we’re seeing in the world come to me through my readings, this poem certainly resonated with me strongly. It is also a reminder that, while some of us may wish to get everyone to see through the damaging ways they may be living their lies, we cannot make a horse drink - only lead them to water. Go and read it on Poetic Outlaws own Substack using the link below:

Anaïs Nin: Some Never Awaken

You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living. Then you read a book… or you take a trip… and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating. The symptoms of hibernating are easily detectable: first, restlessness. The second symptom (when hibernating becomes dangerous and might degenerate …

Poetic Outlaws

From Poets Present

I originally shared this poem through my Notes, but it felt worthwhile re-sharing it here. I met Louisa Flynn • TYL in-person over one of the breakfast sessions for the Bournemouth Writing Festival. What I didn’t realise at our meeting, however, is that she has some excellent poetry, and I discovered her excellent poem “Courage”. I can certainly seeing it being a powerful piece for anyone feeling like they need a bit more courage in their lives. Check it out on her Substack using the link below:

Courage - a poem

Courage. It’s such a loud word. It sounds so strong and rings so clearly. Like a bell. Forged in iron. Clanging with consistency. Unstoppable. Determined. And yet here I sit, my head on the floor and my heart out of place. Searching for the sound of the bell that

The Yoga Letters

From Me

New Poems

This week saw the release of “Sorry, I Must Have Forgotten”, which toys with a similar feeling that It Was No Accident explored, but in a slightly different context. It concerns itself with the loss of responsibility of different sectors of society in the roles that they take on, and I had fun going for a more deliberately repetitive format than I usually do. Take a look below if you missed it:

Sorry, I Must Have Forgotten

This poem is currently available in early access as a thank-you to my paid subscribers and will be released publicly on Wednesday. If you’d like to access this poem early, as well as gaining a load of other great goodies, consider upgrading your subscription today, or

Tom ShawTom Shaw

Reflections From NaPoWriMo

NaPoWriMo, the Substack Version

When I committed to The February Poetry Adventure organized here on Substack by Petra Hernandez I was dubious. I’ve tried “poem-a-day” challenges before and I’d never made it past the first few days. I’d miss a day and feel discouraged and eventually give up. But Petra made the whole thing feel so much less like a challenge and more like an…

Poetical

Now that NaPoWriMo has also concluded (thanks to Tara Connor for her efforts in bringing this to Susbtack!), I have an opportunity to re-visit many of the pieces I wrote for the month and decide if I’d like to do anything more with them. Some were thought-provoking and perfect as they are, some were thought-provoking but would benefit from refinement, some were silly and thought-provoking, and some were just downright silly. I’ve found a home for one of these silly ones at the end of the page “There’s No Treat Like Herbal Tea”, but I suspect it will be a while before I bring back any others.

There's No Treat Like Herbal Tea

Here's something a little more playful than my usual affairs, in keeping with the theme of today (April 1st). Those who know me personally may be well aware of my obsession with herbal teas, so here'…

Tom ShawTom Shaw

All this said, NaPoWriMo has taught me something super valuable, and that is the power of combining consistent practise with community. I’ve been aware of the idea that conscious, deliberate repeated practise can be beneficial in forming new habits. But, it’s always been a struggle for me to actualise this.

NaPoWriMo has been an excellent exercise for me in building a repeated writing habit while having a community that provides encouragement and accountability for me to sustain it. I had a few days where I dropped off of releasing them due to personal commitments getting in the way, but because I felt guilty of leaving the community and the great interactions I was having through the threads on each day’s note, I felt compelled to come back and write more. And, as I discovered, many of those I’d been interacting with had been looking to see where I’d gone! Knowing this helped push me through to the final day of writing on Tuesday.

I included the picture above as I don’t think this kind of approach needs to be exclusive to writing practises; there’s a lot of habits I’m looking to implement in my personal life that I’ve been struggling to maintain over the past few years. This includes cold showers and deliberate grounding exercises each day, both of which have been shown to have great benefits. I’ll link some of the resources I’ve found most enlightening on this below:

Grounding with Clint Ober

Clint Ober is considered to be the 'Grandfather of Grounding'. In 1998, after a successful career grounding systems in the cable television industry, Clint Ober began investigating the potential to improve human health with grounding. Here is what he said about:

Dr Sam Bailey

I can certainly see corralling together a community who are all willing to do this and are willing to keep each other accountable to be a better way of getting these practises to stick for me long-term. If you’re reading this and fancy doing it too, leave a comment and let us get going on this together! Alternatively, if you have other experiences and tips on how you’ve made new habits stick, I’d love to know that too.

This isn’t the last of reflections on writing-based happenings in April though. Keep an eye out next week for more on that.

“Born Anew” Anniversary

We’re coming up to the 3-month anniversary of the release of my poetry book, “Born Anew”. As such, I want to do something special to mark the occasion. I’m happy to announce that I’ll be doing some live readings from the book online on Tuesday 14th May at 7pm UK Time. I had a wonderful experience sharing some of my poetry over a call with the Canadian Sovereignty Coalition, which has given me an itch to be able to have a proper dialogue with my audience in-between each poem about how what I’m sharing is landing with them. As such, this call is a great opportunity to be able to share a bit more about my process with those who are interested.

This will be available to all my email subscribers, both free and paid, so if you want to be able to join (and that includes those of you only following on the app!), make sure you’re subscribed below when I send out the details later in the week.

In preparation for the event, I’ve lowered the price of the physical copy of Born Anew to £4.99, so people who haven’t thus far read all of the poems get a chance to get their hands on it. It’s a great time to get your hands on something physical if you’ve been enjoying my poems and are interested in something more. You can find out more about the book below.

Born Anew

“Born Anew” is a collection of over 20 poems reflective of my inner and outer journey of the past few years. Some poems are more light-hearted and optimistic. Some explore the bleakness of realising …

Tom ShawTom Shaw

And Finally

Thank you for continuing to follow my progress. It's incredibly heartwarming to know you are here and believe in the work I'm doing, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you and the rest of the world soon.

With gratitude,
Tom

Thank you for reading. If you know of others who may enjoy what I put out, I’d be honoured if you shared my work with them.