BCC Shines A Light on: nat raum
BCC Shines a Light On:
nat raum
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
with confetti, issue 1
What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
This piece was written after I began a new relationship and had finally started to feel happiness with another person after a long history of bad relationships. The first “line” is based on something my partner said to me when we were first talking, and the rest imagines a scene of us together. That’s the other funny thing about this piece–I wrote a lot of the pieces in this “series” when we were courting each other virtually due to the pandemic.
To speak to the style… yeah, I don’t know. Around this time in my writing practice, I was exploring spacing and formatting as a means of crafting a poem with minimal to no punctuation. I’ve since fallen back in love with punctuation and my work has changed a lot, but I often wish I still wrote like this sometimes.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
This was a meaningful piece to me at the time and has only continued to be meaningful. That said, I think seeing this piece republished is more meaningful now, since this was one of my very first publications of writing originally (I’d published my art before a good bit, though). And as I mentioned before, my work has changed a lot, so I’m glad this piece still means a lot to me. I think it can be easy to bury your old work or think that you should no longer be proud of it because you’ve evolved or grown. I’m glad I don’t feel that very much.
Is there a specific message you'd like readers to take away from reading this piece?
Not so much a message, but I think this piece is a testament that it’s okay to play with conventions in your work.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
@gr8earlofhell on Instagram and Twitter, and on the web at natraum.com.
