We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Colby Charles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Colby, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am a poet that expresses intimate moments of my life and story through short form poetry. I began writing around the age of 14, initially just journaling, but hiding it as the patriarchal world I grew up in was not conducive to the emotional musings of a teenager who didn’t quite understand the things he was feeling or going through. In college while taking a creative writing class that was focused on poetry, Dr. Stewart (A&M-Commerce) encouraged me to take my writing more seriously and to potentially pursue it past my course work. With the encouragement and support of my loved ones at that time, I did exactly that. This eventually lead to my release of my 1st self published work “Because, Why Not?” which was a rough collection of poems written from ages 16-24. I was left wanting more, and with being dissatisfied with that end product, I formed a vision for what a proper representation of my work would be – it would involve my loved ones, would feature more forms of art, and would be a more cohesive insight and display of emotion – which I accomplished this Spring with my 2nd self published work “Tales and Turnabouts”, which features cover art by my younger sister, edited by 2 of my best friends, content mulled over and discussed with many others, and features photo work that I’ve completed over the years, alongside my first painting. It is truly a collective work of love, and loss – all put together with the idea that my work may make someone somewhere feel more ok with what and how they are feeling.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most impactful and important aspect of being an artist or creative mind is simply when a stranger, friend, loved one – anyone – is affected by your work. I’ve had close friends who know me and my writing style express deep emotions that were felt due to my words in my most recent work – and that is the exact feeling I am chasing through my work.
The most gratifying aspect of sharing my heart and soul with the world is when people are able to give me part of theirs in return – whether they tell me how my words made them feel, or if it’s them crying alone in their room as they read some of my tale on loss.
If anyone feels anything from my words, I’ve accomplished my life’s goal as an artist.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I was born in Mesquite, Texas, raised by my mom and grandparents – and moved to the country when my mom married when I was age 9. In not having a true father figure for the 1st 10 years of my life, and not having many friends I learned to not show emotion – you cant be the weird kid in school who also reacts emotionally to bullying or varying forms of mistreatment – you learn to deflect in many ways, humor, outlandish/mischievous behavior, and in time drugs and alcohol – and I did this through my teenage and (unfortunately) most of my 20s.
Looking back I wish I had understood that feeling is human, depression is human, happiness is human, and we are not along in the ebbs and flows in life – and at the bottom of every bottle is not an answer but typically more questions.
Learning to emote effectively vs reacting, deflecting, hiding emotions is something that I am still building on now – and hope to continue to improve on as I continue to learn and grow more into my own existence.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @colbysteven_
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colbycharles/
- Twitter: @colbysteven_
Image Credits
The lantern photo – Photo credit to Katie Spurgin @kspurphoto