041: when did your heart last ‘skip a beat’? “the last time my heart skipped a beat was when i finally completed a long and needed poem after not writing any poetry for almost half a year. the time in between, where i couldn’t write poetry, was almost like limbo. writing is not only with whom i’m in an affair — writing is who i am. i bleed ink. my arm is one with a pen. my skin is paper. writing is my everything, and not having been able to write killed me. it was just so painstakingly frustrating, sitting down with my favorite pen in hand, and not being able to move with it. sometimes i felt like my heart wasn’t beating at all, during this time. i was just going through the motions everyday — rinse and repeat. i don’t really remember much. as for the poem, i got its sudden inspiration when i was on the subway in the city. i’m a terrible insomniac, so it was pretty late at night. as i was getting off the subway, a guy whizzed right past me. as he got on, i turned around and we made eye contact. there was nothing romantic about it, but rather sensual and out of curiosity; we were both analyzing each other. he was out of breath and had ruddy cheeks from the cool november air, and as the subway zipped off, i was left with my hair blowing in the trail of its wind, and breathless too. and then it hit me: all of the words for a poem were flowing into me, and revitalizing me. i grabbed a pen out of my purse right away, and not bothering to get my notepad out, i jotted out an outline all over my left hand. i then got home that night and wrote out the poem and watched the sunrise. most people would think that the little contact i made with that stranger would make my heart skip a beat, but finishing my poem, which is all thanks to that stranger, mind you, while watching the sun rise, made my heart skip a beat. it gave me hope, and got me back to writing poetry again. it was such a simply awe-inspiring moment in my life, no matter how minuscule it was. it will always be infinite in my mind" - zoe, from a little fishing village on the seaside @zogilligan #comefromtheheart #love #poetry #poems #insomnia #zoe #inspiration #seaside #village
