WORK BY

Janielle-Amoi Maxwell

This piece was written in May 2020, to express my experience with the dualistic nature of being a female. At the time, I often found myself conflicted with what was expected from me as a woman and what I knew I wanted for myself and deserved. This poem walks through that experience in relation with the opposite gender, and expresses how I’ve continued to assert myself and to honour my vision of femininity; which can be both docile and dominant.

I am 22 years old. I’m originally from Brampton, ON and I started writing seriously in high school as an emotional outlet. At the time, I felt very disconnected from most people in my life and started writing poetry as a means to help me understand why that might have been. The past couple years of my life have brought me tremendous growth as a person, and I’ve recently decided to dive back into my poetry; which has become the most vulnerable way I’ve learned to express myself. After 7+ years of using my journal as both a means of expression and introspection, I’ve finally mustered up the courage to begin sharing the one thing I really pour myself wholeheartedly into. The pages of my journal have been a solace to me; a place where I am stripped of pride and free from any form of judgment except my own. They’ve granted me precious moments where I can really look into myself and give credit where it’s due, but also realize the areas in which I can be better to myself, and by extension, overflow to be better to others.