What do I keep writing about?

A friend recently suggested the topic for this post:  "What themes keep showing up in your poetry, or in the poetry of the writers you love?" I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. It’s such a simple yet personal question.

For me, it’s always been about longing and loneliness. Those two emotions seem to linger in my words, whether I’m actively aware of them or not. But there’s more to it than just that. With that longing and loneliness comes the hope for connection. The desire to belong somewhere, anywhere. To find a space or a person where you feel fully seen and understood.

And of course, love is a guiding line through all of it. Not just the romantic kind of love, but love in its many forms:, the familiar and the unknown, the kind that comforts, the kind that challenges us, changes us, and the kind that feels just out of reach.

It’s funny how these themes seem to have a way of sneaking into my work. I’ll set out to write about something completely different, and before I know it, the words shift. What started as a description of a quiet street at evening's fall, turns into a reflection on isolation. A fleeting memory of warmth transforms into a longing to relive it. Even when I’m not writing about loneliness or connection, it's always there, hiding just beneath the surface.

I used to wonder, and still do sometimes, if that made my writing too narrow, too niched. Should I push myself to explore lighter themes, or focus on topics that feel fresh? But I’ve realized that these recurring ideas aren’t a limitation, they’re a part of who I am. They’re the truths I’m still working through, the emotions that don’t have easy answers. These emotions shape so much of who I am, so it makes sense that they would shape my writing too.

And that’s the beauty of poetry, isn’t it? It’s not about reinventing yourself every time. It’s about returning to what matters to you and exploring it from new perspectives and gain new insights. Because as much as the themes stay the same, we don’t. The way I write about longing or love today isn’t the same as it was a year ago, or even six months ago. Life keeps changing us, and poetry reflects that.

As for the second part of the question... I’ve never been much of a poetry reader myself, and maybe that’s why these themes feel so personal to me. I’m not trying to reflect anyone else’s work or emulate someone else's voice, just my own. Of course there are poems that I've read and loved. Poems that inspired me, that made me tear up or laugh out loud. Usually those too deal with the darker emotions, those we like to keep hidden or secret. But those we all have to deal with eventually. 

One of my all time favourite poems is Erlkönig, written by the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1782. Look it up, it's really good. 

So, what about you? What themes keep showing up in your writing? Or, if you’re more of a reader, what about the poetry you love? What ideas do those poets keep coming back to?

I’d love to hear about the themes that draw you back, the ones you can’t stop reading, and why they matter to you. Let me know!