Around this time last year, I began sharing pieces that created For The Crows. It's hard to express how grateful I feel towards that collection, and to the overall response it's received, but what I can say is thank you, a million times over.
Before releasing that collection, I stopped writing for a really long time. For years, I couldn't get past the first sentence of anything that I wrote, and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to say or how I wanted to say it.
I kept to myself for so long that the process of finding those words again in my early twenties was more challenging than it should have been. I found it difficult to give those years of silence a voice, and I didn't know if I wanted it to reflect the worry or the wonder of my teenage years, or if I just wanted it to be a representation of the work of my twenties. But eventually, For The Crows helped me decide that I wanted it to encompass all of that, because sometimes, I am all of that.
Towards the end of that decision, I figured that when I look back on all of this 10, 20, even 50 years from now, none of that will even matter. I'll just be glad that I created a space to share something meaningful to me and that I decided to let the world see it again.
That's how For The Crows was born, and that's how Evergreen was born; it has created a space for me to share those things, and it lets me be, without worrying about the rest.
It enables all my emotions and experiences to come alive and keeps what matters most evergreen on these pages. Some things don't wither with the seasons; they endure through each one, and the goal of this collection is not only to express that, but to do it justice.
In short, Evergreen is a vessel for everything that endures, season after season, and a place where it can endlessly do so.
It's a place for the words I once didn't have and my appreciation towards the fact that I now have them.
It's a wide-open field where those words can run as far as they want to go, because I truly believe they deserve the chance to do so, and they deserve that from me.
That being said, For The Crows has undergone a little bit of a rework, but will continue to receive new pieces that fit into its space.
Thank you for sticking with me through the seasons and for always supporting me through each one.
This is Evergreen, and I hope you love it as much as I do.
CJ
