The art of poetry to me has always been beyond just a style of writing but a way of living life. It’s romantic, intimate, deep. For me poetry is how I love to write but it’s also how I strive to live – a poetic life.
Poetry can be found in the noticing the small things around us, in romanticizing our every day life, and in living with intention.
I am still someone who loves to put pen to paper, so I always carry a small notebook with me so that I can jot down inspirations as I have them. Often my writing flows to me, like a sudden wave and if I don’t jump into it, it will move beyond me, sometimes lost.
It’s always hard for me to narrow down poetry because much of my life and writing can fall into the category of poetry. Below I will share a few of my favourites. My hope is to have a book of poetry published within 2026.
“Dear Non-Binary Kid”
June 3rd 2023
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
The world is a really scary place right now
But please know you’ll get through somehow
Even when they don’t understand your light
I hope you continue to shine just as bright.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
If family and friends start to disappear
I hope you know you have community here
People who will never ask you to change
Who don’t treat you like you’re wrong or strange.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
When they disrespect your pronouns
And try to erase your being
Know that there’s nothing wrong with you
And your existence has meaning.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
When you look in the mirror and
Don’t see the person you are inside
I wish for you a future and a world
Where you don’t have to hide.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
When fear takes root, and they kill people like you and are violent
Know that there are communities behind you
That won’t stay silent.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
I need you to know that you’re transcendent
Everything you are is nothing less than magnificent
Don’t let them take your joy even if they take your rights
You, my love, are made for much greater heights.
Dear Non-Binary Kid,
When it gets dark and feels impossible to be alive
Know that I am here to help you soar
And to help you thrive..
You see non-binary kid
I am you,
and you are me
And I need you to know
I need you to see
That you are perfect in everything you are
And everything you will ever be.
“As I Am”
July 24th 2022
3rd Place Winner in the Queer Poetry Slam
I use to drown myself in mediocrity just so I would fit in
And wondered why I hated every moment being in my own skin
Never understood why it didn’t feel quite right – if only I was like them
Watched the world around me to know how to look, how to be femme
How to mask every single part of who I am
To be smaller,
more acceptable,
more digestible,
To be accepted,
to be liked,
to be loveable,
But really to them
I was just replaceable.
That person wasn’t real,
Just a reflection of broken society
A mirror of all the ways difference is erased
A human embodiment of anxiety
A way to protect myself, but what a waste
The world is a dangerous place for someone like me
There’s always someone else that they need me to be
Told I need a cure for my Autism and ADHD
Told I shouldn’t exist being disabled, being me.
I tell them I’m pan
But god forbid I date a man
Then magically I’m not seen as queer anymore
Too hetero-passing, here’s the door
Suddenly my community is gone
And then showing up in queer spaces feels wrong
I tell them I’m non-binary
But god forbid I don’t give androgyny.
Don’t put me in your box, in your two ways to exist
Stop trying to make me something you can dismiss
I am sick of this core wound of not being enough,
Of being othered and outcasted and told I’m too much
As if my soul and my being needs to change
to fit into this stupid societal game
I deserve to take up space and be true to who I am
Not who they need me to be, not a woman, not a man.
I deserve to honour the spectrum of my identity
And to celebrate every single part of me.
I am different and may rub people the wrong way
But I’m proud of the person who is standing here today.
Still so much more to learn and ways I need to grow
But I am a beautiful soul, this much I know.
It will take me a lifetime to unravel these constraints they’ve put me in
But by showing up exactly as I am, the freedom can begin.
Being Queer and Neurodivergent helped me to see,
That I am fiery, I am unique, and limitless in who I can be.
I know now that I am enough and I am worthy
And no one can ever take that away from me.
“One With The Water”
May 27th 2019
I want to be one with the wild waters.
I want the freedom to embrace myself in my own skin,
To know I am part of nature,
something sacred,
and let the healing begin.
I want to kiss my cellulite
and forgive the years of hate,
I want to hug my curves and apologize for the self-love arriving so late.
I want to feel beautiful like the way the trees hug the shore.
I want to accept myself knowing my mind is meant for more..
more than self deprecating judgment,
more than worrying about perceptions.
I want the freedom to be in my own skin,
and to love myself fully,
no exceptions.
I want to just be, like the currents from a stream.
To let go of the “should be”’s,
the critics,
the mean.
I want to stand naked and not be afraid of how I look
I want to be free from what all the abuse took.
I am not my body,
I am not my scars,
I am not my pain.
I am nature,
I am sacred,
I am something wild you cannot tame.
I am divinity and nature as they intertwine,
I am a soul in a body and this body is mine.
I want to cherish it for all the grace that it can give
I want to be free like wild waters..
I want to just live.
ArtByLXC 