This week’s Mic Drop features Cera Rodriguez, a former NCC student who studied criminal justice. Rodriguez started writing poetry when she was just hitting puberty. Her poems are about emotions and changes happening in her life. Depending on the type of poem, it usually takes her months to polish a piece. Before she drops the microphone, let’s get to know her a little better.
Stella Fanega: When did you start writing poems and what were they mostly about?
Cera Rodriguez: I started writing poetry around puberty, I was probably around 11 or 12. Definitely started in late middle school and carried on til today. My poems were about everything honestly! I was a quiet, very shy kid and I absolutely loved reading because it was my way of being around people yet being in my own world. So when I reached puberty and had so many emotions and changes happening in my life, I had read so many books that when I had something to say I had a million ways to say it and my mouth didn’t work as fast as my pen did, so I wrote down everything. I tend to think in a melodic tone, music helps me organize my anxious thoughts, so my writing just sounded like poetry…that’s where it started.
SF: How long does it take you to polish a poem?
CR: It depends on the type of piece honestly. If its a narrative, definitely months because I’m living the experience and writing about it at the same time so the piece correlates to the experience. If its a think piece, or satire, probably a month or two simply because I think probably 5000 words a minute (not literally, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was close) so its easier to to write down ideas or jokes or points I want to talk about. There are times I’ll hold on to a piece for a while to try out lines or jokes I wrote down in everyday conversations to see of they elicit a response or laugh. I always go with what I think is best, but finishing a piece comes with wanting the feeling of being content in your writing and content with how the reader will walk away from it. I spend more time on perfect HOW I’m going to say something and not WHAT I’m going to say, because I always have something to say.
SF: How do you manage to put so many emotions in one piece?
CR: I think of the piece as a letter to my reader. Sort of like “Thank you for coming on this journey and letting me romance your ears.” So as simple as it sounds, I take my time to engage the reader. Their sense, their emotions, their parallels to my situation make the emotions I put in it real. I write about everyday things, but if I can write my piece to make the reader feel the love or loss or rage then the emotions I felt becomes 10 times more real for them too. I put so much emotion into my piece because I’m ultimately trying to romance your ears and romance is a serious sport. I want my reader to cry when reading lines I cried writing. I want them to laugh where I sarcastically emphasize a point. I want them to be angry enough at a piece they’ll help me get revenge. And they can only feel like that if I say “Hey this is exactly how I’m feeling-good, bad and ugly. Remember when you felt that way? Remember when you couldn’t exactly voice how you felt? Well I’m going through that too and it does suck but I found a way to express a common emotion.” I’m honest with my emotions, which is jarring to some people, but a breath of fresh air too.
SF: What does poetry mean to you and how does it impact your life currently?
CR: Poetry means saying everything I want to, which I don’t always get to. I can be as open and honest in a piece because its art, no one can bash art no matter how brutally honest it gets. I can be madly in love with someone and if I’m afraid to say it I can write a piece about it and not feel like I’m smothering them. I can be angry and rage-filled and take it out on paper instead of an underserving person. Poetry is also my way of hiding. Things I feel or go through that I can’t articulate but want to vent about gets turned into a poem. Those pieces aren’t read aloud, they’re more like diary. Poetry helps me by being my outlet for emotions. I’m surprisingly not good with them, I can communicate a lot but emotions are hard. I can be honest about how I feel when I write, my pen and paper tell no tales. And some may worry that if I don’t talk about things, ill internalize them. I’m not though, I write it down, organize my thoughts, get it out, then store it away for another day.
SF: What would you advice students who have the passion to write?
CR: Do it all the time! And I mean this is a multitude of ways; if someone doesn’t like something, keep writing. If a professor says you can’t write, keep writing. If you bomb a performance, keep writing. If you randomly have a great idea, write it down. See something you’d go on a rant about, write it down. Someone in class pissed you off? Taylor Swift their butt and write it down with details! And I say this because I’ve had a piece develop from the statement “if you could tell a black man one thing, what would it be.” It was a billboard and I wrote down the question and when I went back to think about it I came to the realize there in fact was one thing, specifically, I would tell a black man, but I thought why stop there? Why not a list of things. Writing comes from anything, anywhere. What you think isn’t poetic or artistic may in fact be, so write it down for later at least.
SF: What is the most important lesson you have learned in poetry?
CR: Don’t be a poet if you’re doing it for applause, because you won’t always get it. Write because you love it or you’re trying to get a point across. Writing poetry is for you, not for anyone else. So if you’re doing it, being a poet for applause, you’ll find it rough. Yes theres guidelines on how to write a poem, and even how to convey certain messages, but real writing is messy and hard and beautiful and scary and euphoric. Doing it for the wrong reasons will leave you feeling like you can’t write. Its because you’re not, you’re trying to act as a poet.
Write because you love it, perform because you love it. Start doing it for others and you’ll hate it.
Tune in tonight to hear Rodriguez drop some of her pieces at 8 p.m. on The Chronicle/NCClinked.
