Times where you wanted to give up on poetry,and if you did,what brought you back?

I've always loved reading poetry, but I only started writing it as a way of coping through lockdown. I think a lot of people tried new hobbies and new skills during that time and that was mine. I kind of hit a wall earlier this year, when I started trying to share my work and it felt like nobody cared. I've always seen poetry, like any form of creative writing, is a thing to be shared. People were sharing and engaging en masse. They just weren't doing it with mine. Why was I bothering if nobody was interested? I'm used to people engaging with my fiction work, so to have silence towards my poems was crippling. I kept reading and rereading pieces, trying to work out what I had done wrong, until I began to hate my work. So I gave up. Lately I've been regarding that body of work (400+ poems) as a kind of therapy I went through in 2020, it's really helped me gain perspective and peace in certain situations. I have settled into a diaristic style that isn't trendy but I like and I've found since I reframed writing poetry as something I do for myself as a form of self care rather than a way of connecting with the outside world, I feel like less of a failure and have become open to exploring it again.

Hence being back here (:

I've been going through a real journey lately! Feeling like I'm over my head and that nobody really cares what I'm up to and that I'm doing all this work for nothing... not helped along by bad algorithms! But you're right, this is not the right mindset to have, but it's easy to get carried away I guess. Social media can be a terribly toxic influence, which is why I took the drastic step this week to delete instagram. It's scary and I spent years building an audience on it, but it has also been a huge relief and weight off my shoulders. Instagram's algorithm is punishing and I don't have time for that shit in my life lol

One thing someone told me a while back that I've never forgotten, whenever an artist feels like giving up, it is a sign they are levelling up. Their old selves are being left behind and a newer strong artist is coming through!

An illustration I keep on my phone keeps me going too:

"I never felt poetry lied to me." Damn, haha. I like that.

I don't think I've ever considered giving up on poetry? Maybe in the past, many years ago, when I didn't attempt writing as many poems as I should have because I was intimidated by the process and the burden of my high expectations and anxieties, I guess. I'm glad to hear you haven't given up, Bendy. And don't!