Ryan McClelland

The greatest joy of writing for me is the finished piece. I fall in love with my own poetry for what it becomes after my pen stops. It takes on it's own character and voice, it comes to a place where people can read into it and out of it things I can't begin to imagine. There are so many amazing poems out there that are life changing, and it's so great to see what other people are contributing to my list of personal favorites. I'm proud of what I have contributed to the pool for people to pick their favorites from. What a poem can become is the joy of it's author, this is at least the case for me.

The story behind my latest chapbook "The Gift" is two fold. At the time of it's conception I had, in my perspective, received two huge gifts. Poetry being one, and love being the second. I've been so captivated by so many poems recently it's hard to imagine life without wordplay and from that has come much of this collection. As for love, it is such a broad topic because it can be so many things toward so many other things. The feelings I have toward a crush or while star gazing or people watching or the compassion I have toward another human, all of this is love. It can't be contained in just one poem and so I continued to write about it. Most of the collection revolves around these two topics, however a few poems in "The Gift" are oddballs that I enjoyed writing and wanted to share. You could almost say they are bonus content. What is worth sharing if you can't put your opinions out there as well? I hope the oddballs make people think for a moment and reconsider where they stand on particular topics. I hope it presents them with that gift, from myself to them.