Raw: A Manifesto

In honor of finishing my writing portfolio, "Exposing Secluded Crystals", I'm going to share with you my manifesto, along with a piece of writing that I really enjoyed putting together.

I’ve always been the type of girl who preferred being outside, being active, or playing some real, or made-up, sport with my friends. My parents always registered me for a physical hobby, with the exception of Animal Embassy. Creative writing was never a recognized hobby in my early life. I don’t remember the specific day that it happened, but at a certain point, I started to realize that the rhyming words that raced through my mind were of my own creation; my emotions and memories that I turned into lyrics. I realized that the words that forbid me from falling asleep at night or from paying attention in class, were meant to be written down on paper. I knew something had to be done to combat the fact that every time someone said something, I would put beauty or disgust to it in a new form. It became clear to me a few years later, when I was in high school, that writing creatively was not just a hobby, or a form of writing, or a type of expression. Creative writing is an outlet for the most powerful ideas one has. It is a tool for change in the world. It is the act of evoking emotions in people who’ve never thought about something from other perspectives.

Creative writing to me is a compulsion. An intensive feeling of both distress and desire that draws me to scribble words on paper or type ideas into my notes. This writing style can expose raw, buried thoughts and feelings, leaving writers feeling a sense of vulnerability. Learning the ins and outs of this style of writing has allowed me, has pushed me, to not only accept that feeling of vulnerability but to embrace it and share my work anyways.

Writing with emotion and purpose will always be a part of my life as a human being on an earth where the words in my mind matter to only a few, and I will never stop because like Gretchen Primack said in her book, “Visiting Days”, “my soul hums, brims over, in its journey.”

The specific piece below is based on the work of Margaret Bowland, Barbie Cake (2018). If you would like to view the work, for visualization, and then read the poem, here is the link: http://www.margaretbowland.com/recent-works/

Barbie Doll (after “Barbie Cake”, Margaret Bowland)

By: Jayla Wilson

Burn away white cotton cloth

and polished china.

Hair slicked back,

no longer, but longer it is – blonde.

Always pose. Smile for the camera.

Hands tucked away from wandering eyes,

Shy- shy- shy - shy.

Shy, no longer – but hands out wide.

Ruffles and ribbons,

Still white cotton cloth.

Cut it in two,

expose with shimmering silver.

Old dreams burning away,

Not in disgust nor angst, not even grief,

But a need longer.

For it is complete.

Time passes as if it even existed,

From 4 to 24 – black and white no longer.

Embrace pink with passion,

Roses and ribbons and fire and power.

From little too old,

Changes forever changing.

Our temples may grow,

and novelty persists, but vision never strains.

Fierce and a beauty,

Power and delicacy. Young and strong.

Surviving in a world built

without her.

Knew her vision as a young girl,

grew into her vision now.

They say we are what we eat,

she ate a barbie cake.