Everyone on the Z-Team has court-mandated therapists. Some of them actually go and want to go. The others can more-or-less weasel their way out of it
Visi cannot. Not anymore, anyway, not after everything that happened with Shroud and taking a bullet for someone and sneaking out of the hospital room. So, she goes to therapy, and every once in a while, she'll say something that's meant to be said in therapy
Knowing this, Visi is given homework. She didn't know therapy gave homework, but now she's got an empty notebook she's supposed to fill with poetry. Poetry! Visi has never written a poem in her life. Doesn't think she's read any, either, unless they're counting music. How the hell is she supposed to get her feelings out like this when she can't even use her words?
After complaining about the difficulty and admitting she's going to give up, Robert tells her to keep trying. When she calls it embarrassing, Robert offers to show her his poetry, let her laugh at him so it's easier to bear the weight of her "therapist's judgment" (because she refuses to believe she's not being judged)
Perfect, Visi thinks, ready to laugh at Robert when she gets these old, busted journals straight from his scarred hands. She eagerly reads through the yellowing pages. It is, at certain angles, embarrassing Robert... but it's also really good. Visi thinks, anyway, since again, she's no poet. There's something about them, the funny ones and the emo ones and the ones she can tell are about Beef and Chase and Robbie and a deep, deep loneliness
Visi isn't going to steal the poems wholesale, but she does use them as an example. At least, she tries to. It is not easy. She didn't realize until she was just trying to replace each word with an adjective. There's something about Robert's poems: word choice, rhythm, line length, formatting
This is when Coupe comes upon her. Not knowing the full situation, she tells Visi that if she's going to copy a famous poet, this is not the person she should be trying to steal from. Questioning why, Coupe tells her that this is Blue, an unknown poet referred to by their most famous work. Their poems are famous for being technically impressive
Visi blinks, "Isn't Robert's hero nickname blue?"
They both question Robert. He shrugs. He wrote poems from time to time because he heard they helped people with their emotions. His first few attempts weren't satisfying, so he started imposing rules on himself: syllable counts, word usage, line lengths, stuff like that. He preferred it that way. It forced him to think critically about what he wanted to say to fit his rules. Also got him to use formatting as another way to express himself
"Do you know that you're a famous poet?"
"... I'm not? I mean, I posted a couple on a blog a few times, but I don't think anyone's read those."
Robert's a famous poet and he didn't even know it
turnnoffyourmind
gracieabrams
yousharknotpass
tangentwithtanner
snowghoul
ellievsbear
pixelskylines
theartofmadeline
