Meet Louie, The High Poetess, a resilient entrepreneur whose journey as a poet is as raw and honest as her verses. In this candid interview, she shares her story of finding solace and healing through poetry, navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship, and embracing vulnerability as a source of strength. Join us as we delve into her personal experiences, creative process, and her unwavering determination to share her innermost thoughts with the world.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you embarked on your journey as a poet and founder of The High Poetess?
I have always been a poet; I have been writing for as long as I’ve been capable – I remember being roughly 5 years old and taking my stories and poems to my grandmother’s house to read them out to everybody! And I think I always knew that I was going to venture out into the world of entrepreneurship, I’m too stubborn to be squashed down into a structured box like a ‘normal’ job (whatever that means) and I’m still getting growing pains working in the corporate world.
During the COVID-19 lockdown, that’s when I really got a taste of living life on my own terms and I realised my love for writing poetry had doubled down, as well as my excitement for the other part of my business (online tarot readings). At the time of starting, I had a different & much larger social media following, and I received a lot of support for my ventures. After realising that audience wasn’t serving me, I have started again and been driven by my pure lust for poetry (and tarot) – it’s what’s gotten me here. It’s not been easy, but it has been fun!
Your books, “Sadness in Stillness” and “Musing Ghosts,” delve into personal pain and transformation through poetry. Could you share more about the inspiration behind these works and how they reflect your own journey?
Both of my books have been like therapy to me, where I’ve healed from certain hardships alone. They’re both very personal insights into my journey. They’re a piece of me. Both my books have the same filter on them, they’re both inspired by me being at rock bottom and not wanting to be there anymore.
Whilst I was writing the poems that became the two collections, it was completely unbeknownst to me that I would collate them together and publish them for anybody to see, they were just a way of coping and healing myself from a myriad of traumas whilst I had nobody there to turn to.
Many artists find solace and healing through their creative expressions. How has poetry helped you navigate through your own challenges and traumas?
I noticed early on that the ugliest, hardest things that happened to me could become beautiful when captured in the right words and tones.
Throughout my life, I have spent large chunks of time completely alone with no support system, and instead of turning to a loved one or a therapist or whatever, I turned to my notebook instead. That itself was immensely healing, but turning the barbed wire chaos in my mind into tangible beauty was proof to me, in some way, that things were going to be okay.
In the past year or so, I have started a new healing journey as I’m finally, for the first time in my life, in a safe space. My ultimate way of transmuting traumas is to make poetry of them, so now I can reflect on my life in this safe space and look back on horrors in this poetic and positive light, which has helped me become soft where I used to be cold and cut-off.
Starting a creative venture like The High Poetess requires courage and determination. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in establishing your brand and publishing your books?
In my brand, my biggest challenge was looking at myself truthfully. It’s hard to lie to yourself about who you are when you’re being perceived by others, especially strangers. In the early days of THP, before it was called that, I had a much larger following, but I realised early on they were following me for the wrong reasons, which didn’t suit me or work for me anymore. So, starting from scratch, with no pre-made community, whilst trying to face myself and thus my demons, was probably my biggest challenge.
Also – sales. I hate sales, it feels so unnatural to me. Just telling people why they should buy my books feels wrong. It’s something you must do when you’re self-published though, so I have to push through.
Could you share a particularly memorable moment or milestone in your journey as a poet and entrepreneur?
Probably a year after my first book was released, I’d sort of given up as it wasn’t as well received as I had hoped, and I wasn’t ready to sell to my new audience. Then, out of the blue, I got an unexpected PayPal tip from a stranger, and the note stated it was from somebody who had read my book and felt so moved by it they had to send me some form of thank you. I still want to cry when I think about it. Not just because the money was more than I’d ever expect as a tip, let alone an unprompted one from a stranger, but because I felt in that moment like I had done the right thing by publishing my works. It had impacted somebody else, and that was enough for me. That gave me the courage to keep on going. So, to that stranger, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
Being vulnerable in your work can be both empowering and daunting. How do you balance authenticity with privacy when sharing your personal experiences through poetry?
It helps that I’m a fan of ambiguity, sometimes I find a lack of details can add more to my writing than specifics could. And I like to dress my wounds in metaphors and colourful imagery to disguise what it’s actually talking about. One person could read a poem I wrote about a certain subject and take something completely different from it – and I love that so much. But I’m an open book, and I often do like to make my poetry have some specificity in the hopes it will help somebody else – that is a lot more important to me than me being private.
What advice would you give to aspiring poets and writers who are hesitant to share their innermost thoughts and feelings with the world?
Honestly, my advice is to just go for it. Just bloody do it. You might not think it’s all that great (and I’ve been there myself) but you never know when you’re about to create somebody’s new favourite piece of art. Swallow your inner critic; you don’t become confident and THEN do the thing, you become confident BY doing the thing. Just challenge yourself to share without thinking about it too much – like I’m currently writing a poem to share before editing every single day this year, just to push myself, and I’m always surprised to find the ones I didn’t like very much after looking at them so closely are usually the best received ones.
And if you’re creating things that are intimately you, you’d be surprised by how many people can see reflections of their own stories in your creations, even when you’re specific about little details. Your work could be transforming or healing people, and by gatekeeping them you stop others feeling that, or enjoying something they wouldn’t have if it wasn’t there to be enjoyed.
Also, I know it’s a trending word right now, but delusions are your best friend. Keep your delusions closer than imposter syndrome or your inner critic.
In the realm of creativity, setbacks and rejection are inevitable. How do you stay resilient and motivated during tough times?
Again, I stay delusional! I like to tell myself that I’m just so niche that the people rejecting my work just can’t see it for the beautiful thing it is, or they just don’t have good taste, or whatever delusion I need to believe to pick myself back up.
The more I share, the more I open myself up to rejection, but I also believe in the butterfly effect, so I strongly think that if just one person sees my work and enjoys it, then I’ve changed the whole damned world through that one person. Who cares about 10 people rejecting you when you’ve already made the world better through one whole person’s appreciation?!
And, how do I stay motivated when I’m facing setbacks? I honestly don’t. I wrote in a poem once, “making a habit out of a hobby means making it a chore first”. Most of the time I’m motivated because poetry is who I am, not just what I do, but I struggle with my own mind and sometimes I’m too damned depressed to write. I just refuse to let that stop me. I’ve lost years and years to my own mind, I refuse to lose anymore, so I think of that and force myself to write a little a day, even if it’s just 5 words, because I am not my depression and I refuse to have the silly little black dog take my favourite thing away from me again. We’re all bigger than our minds, and we can do anything even if our minds won’t let us believe it at first.
As someone who has journeyed through pain to find purpose in poetry, what message or insight do you hope readers take away from your work?
Probably two things – that if I can go through absolute hell and make it out of the other side, so can they. And that life is for enjoying it. You can get through any hardship – and you can, and should, try to find the beauty and joy and goodness in anything you can. Stay strong and be a hedonist! Trust me, you’re worth it!
Finally, what’s next for The High Poetess? Any upcoming projects or goals you’re excited about?
I’m currently working on a few projects, slowly. Community is a very important thing to me, especially in the world of creatives, so the next thing I release to the world will be a collaborative piece. I’m also working on a full-length poetry book which I’m trying to get published externally. It’s scary and hard and rejection has stumped me slightly, but I’m headstrong and stubborn and I’ll stop at nothing to release that poetry book!!
You can find more on Louise’s work on Instagram, Threads & TikTok @the.highpoetess
@the.highpoetess on Instagram, Threads & TikTok
