In August 2023, Keely Gladis (’27) sat down to write a poem, not knowing it would spark a year-long journey culminating in her completed poetry collection, “Oddities and Entities.”

However, Gladis said she has always been an avid writer both in and out of school.

“It’s been a massive passion of mine for too long to remember,” she said.

Gladis said she initially began writing long-form fiction but shifted her focus to short stories and poetry prose two years ago, drawn to its more efficient nature.

“I don’t have the time to commit myself to long-form writing,” Gladis said. “So, poetry is probably the avenue I’m going to stick to for a while.”

Gladis said the struggle of being a full-time student was a theme she wanted to represent within her writing. She also said she directed her pieces toward a teenage audience, knowing they would be the ones “who would understand the experience.”

While Gladis said “Oddities and Entities” is not intended to have a specific theme, it covers her experience through adolescence.

“There is a lot of stuff centered around growing up and just being where I am in my life,” Gladis said.

Gladis’ writing process begins with what she likes to call “seed poems” that stem from her day-to-day thoughts or emotions.

Additionally, Gladis said old poets such as Edgar Allen Poe, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Shakespeare have paved the road for her growth as a writer.

“Before I started working in free verse, I tried to replicate their styles in order to improve my own writing, which is how I discovered my aversion to writing sonnets, despite my love for Shakespeare’s own,” Gladis said.

She said these authors of inspiration introduced her to new concepts.

“I’m really inspired by the themes they often explore in their writing, such as Poe’s morbid fascinations and his mournful sense of love,” Gladis said.

Moreover, Gladis said the personal lives of authors like Shelley have become subjects of her own writing.

“I’ve also actually written a poem about each of them,” Gladis said. “Shelley’s death also inspired a lot of themes I like to explore, self-fulfilling prophecies, existentialism and the like.”

Gladis said the publication process of her collection has been delayed as she entered a few poems in the Foyle Young Poets Award competition, and copyright complications led her to worry if publication would even be an option.

However, Gladis did not win the competition, which she said was relieving because she wouldn’t “have to go through those hoops.”

The last poem of Gladis’s collection was finished Aug. 23. Nonetheless, she said she has already begun planning future projects.

“The one [goal] I’m working on now is just write a poem every day for a month, and then turn that into, sort of, a themed collection around October,” Gladis said.

Given that she only decided “Oddities and Entities” would be a collection halfway through the process, Gladis said she plans to be more structured in future projects.

“I chose a theme, and I am sticking to it,” she said.

While Gladis said she will advertise her collection once it is published, its existence is what truly satisfies her.

“I might put some ads on social media because everyone does that nowadays, but I don’t need people to read it,” Gladis said. “I just like knowing it’s there.”

Overall, Gladis said the year-long project was an enjoyable adventure of personal reflection.

“Writing is a journey,” Gladis said. “The road I’ve taken has been one of the best experiences of my life.”

This story was originally published on The Standard on November 15, 2024.