Meet Joshua Burton

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joshua Burton. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Joshua, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

I struggled with self-esteem from my childhood until my 20’s. My confidence didn’t begin to sprout until I was in undergrad and started to take poetry classes. Finding this genre and experiencing some success in it definitely helped my confidence, but the thing that helped the most was the kind and encouraging words from teachers. Having teachers who respected my writing and my mind was life changing and in these classes was when confidence finally began to uprise.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I’m a poet through and through. It’s been my obsession for the past 15 years. My full time job is as an English teacher at a private school in Houston, but poetry is the thing that keeps me going. What has made poetry so persistent and significant in my life is its ability to speak beyond me. Many times when I finish a poem I don’t always truly understand it yet. It’s usually ahead of me and I have to catch up to it. Creating something that is beyond where you currently are is incredibly gratifying.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

These are qualities I still have to constantly remind myself of. But being kind and patient with yourself is something I try really hard to work at. I’m a perfectionist at heart, so I have to keep reminding myself to be okay with imperfection and my flaws. Another important thing is to remember that every person is solely unique. In art and creative work a fear many people have is repeating others and not being original, but I’ve learned that one’s originality is inherit in them. The last thing is listening to your voice. I mean this in a literal sense as well as a spiritual sense. Every time I finish a new poem, I record myself reading it. Then I listen to the recording. Being able to hear myself read it reveals a kind of truth or lack their of in the poem. It was definitely uncomfortable at first but over time I found a lot of comfort being able to return to myself and my voice in this way. It also helped build confidence.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Last year, I won a contest where they paired local Houston poets with local Houston filmmakers, and we did a poetry film together. I was very proud of this film and ever since I’ve had the desire to explore film collaboration more with my poems. I would love to continue to work with filmmakers to see how more poems can be visual and realized in that medium,

Contact Info:

Image Credits

image 1 and 2: Yolanda Movsessian
image 3: Maxine Brackbill

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