Ep 10: Five Life Lessons Learned from Writing Poetry (Part 1 of 2)

In honor of National Poetry Month, host Dana Tenille Weekes shares three personal lessons she’s learned from writing poetry—lessons that reach far beyond the page and into the everyday lives of listeners seeking rest as a form of self-liberation. This is part one of a two-part reflection series, filled with honest storytelling, grounded reflection, and one powerful featured poem by poet Corey Barron.

If you’ve never picked up a poetry book or disliked poetry altogether, don’t worry—this episode was still made for you.

Dana opens up about her recent struggles with overthinking, overstimulation, and emotional exhaustion, making space for a grounding conversation about seasons of life, the pressure of external gaze, and the power of imagination with detail. Through poetry, Dana teaches us to pause, reflect, and begin again—this time, in alignment with our true selves.

📝 What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• Why Dana cried in front of her virtual fitness trainer
  
  
  
• How poetry became a life-saving and life-shaping liberatory activity
  
  
  
• Three life lessons are drawn from the poetic process:
  
  
  
  1. Living life in seasons uplifts consistency.
     
     
     
  2. Living without the gaze (and writing/living for yourself first).
     
     
     
  3. Your imagination must pour concreteness.
     
     
     
• A featured reading of Corey Barron’s poem: Dance to Keep from Crying
  
  
  
• Reflection prompts to bring each lesson into your own life
  
  
  

📚 Time Stamps:

00:00 Introduction to the Rest of Us Podcast

00:16 Honoring National Poetry Month

01:49 Personal Struggles and Reflections

05:10 Life Lesson 1: Living a Life in Seasons

14:36 Life Lesson 2: Live Without the Gaze

18:56 Life Lesson 3: Your Imagination Must Pour Concreteness

24:22 Poetry Reading: Dance to Keep from Crying

29:02 Conclusion and Community Building

🧠 Reflection Questions:

1. Where in your life are you ignoring your natural seasons? What seasons must you recognize in your life to navigate differently and with consistency?
   
   
2. Do you live a life where you feel like you must perform and prove? How can you start living without the gaze?
   
   
3. Are your dreams vivid and concrete, or abstract and too general that you are still distant from them?
   
   

 Please share this episode if anything in this conversation felt like a mirror or a message. Someone in your community may be ready to think of rest differently.

If this episode feels like a message or mirror, feel free to share it with someone who is looking to think about rest differently.

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Until next time, rest, my friends.

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