Simply beautiful, and I love the creative formatting!
Growing sideways is another way of naming that growth, progress, grief, etc are never linear lines. My life trajectory and transition from childhood to adulthood has been anything but a straight and traditional path, but instead something that curves and wobbles and strays away from the path forward.
I felt so at home reading this as someone who also writes poems using nature as an extended metaphor to process my feelings— Growing sideways to me means being strong enough to chose growth in gardens I didn’t chose. There’s a poem in my notes on this: I think you’d like it.✨
This works fantastically - love the poem which is certainly served well by its formatting. (I have often been tempted to do this... Substack really should allow us to present work non-left justified!)
I agree! I really wish Substack allowed for different formatting styles. If you ever end up sharing your own uniquely formatted poem, do tag me! Would be happy to read it. Thanks for reading, John
Simply beautiful, and I love the creative formatting!
Growing sideways is another way of naming that growth, progress, grief, etc are never linear lines. My life trajectory and transition from childhood to adulthood has been anything but a straight and traditional path, but instead something that curves and wobbles and strays away from the path forward.
Thank you for sharing!
Yes! Here's to non-linear growth. Thanks for reading, Cheyenne <3
The formatting enhances the poetry ❤️. Growing sideways - it would mean accepting unplanned detours and trajectories in life and going with the flow.
I love that interpretation! Thank you for reading Binu <3
I felt so at home reading this as someone who also writes poems using nature as an extended metaphor to process my feelings— Growing sideways to me means being strong enough to chose growth in gardens I didn’t chose. There’s a poem in my notes on this: I think you’d like it.✨
Thank you for this beautiful comment Lisa <3
Really nice! For what it's worth, I do that, too. It's makes me sad to deny a vegetable a chance at life. Thanks.
Same Ted! Thank you for reading
This works fantastically - love the poem which is certainly served well by its formatting. (I have often been tempted to do this... Substack really should allow us to present work non-left justified!)
I agree! I really wish Substack allowed for different formatting styles. If you ever end up sharing your own uniquely formatted poem, do tag me! Would be happy to read it. Thanks for reading, John
Loved this, Anagha !! Both the form and the content :-)) Simply beautiful !
I so appreciate it, Meera!
Really lovely and I love the shape of the poem. We do grow sideways at times.
Thank you so much LeeAnn, I always look forward to your comments <3
Beautiful
Thank you Minaz!