Tiny Victories

Abstract

Tiny Victories is a poetry collection that was experiential as much as it was research based. In preparing for this creative project, I read many collections, and spoke to poets to discuss their process. Preparation for this collection included writing free-hand in my journal for months, and reaching back into old journals I’ve kept since middle school and then transferring and editing these words to craft poems. This required reflection, revisiting old pain and past loves and ultimately a reworking of my world. In this collection I explored themes of mental health, memory, nostalgia, trauma, time and healing. The title Tiny Victories was meant to capture a duality with tiny obviously meaning small and victory invoking a large feeling of conquest. I used this to define a concept of “baselines” without actually ever using the term. This concept was introduced to me by an old therapist and has changed my perspective and provides comfort. It basically means we all have different capacities on different days. Getting out of bed or taking a shower on some days is a real win for me, which is not to say I am not also capable of accomplishing astronomical feats. I wanted to make this focus and idea clear to validate my experience as well as potentially those of my readers. This collection features an applied study of a variety of classic forms as well as free-verse. The collection is divided into two sections titled Unlearning and Relearning, which is meant to repeat the duality within the cycle of human development, involving both regression and rebuilding. This theme is repeated throughout the collection to tell a story of revisiting and reframing trauma and experience for therapeutic purposes.