Tag: artistic identity

  • Author’s Note

    Some poems arrive as observations.

    Others arrive as questions.

    This one began with a question I wasn’t entirely prepared to answer:

    Who am I without writing?

    I’ve spent more than two decades translating my inner world into poetry. Over time, writing stopped feeling like something I do and started feeling like the place where I exist most completely.

    That’s a strange realization.

    Because poetry isn’t simply expression for me—it’s construction.

    Every poem is assembled from fragments: memories, emotions, images, conversations, dreams, fears, humor, hope. I rarely invent from nothing. I gather pieces of lived experience and stitch them together until they begin breathing on their own.

    That’s where the title comes from.

    Victor Frankenstein wasn’t remembered because he created life.

    He was remembered because he assembled it.

    That’s often what writing feels like to me.

    I gather disconnected thoughts, broken emotions, recurring symbols, and scattered moments, then bind them together until they become something capable of standing on its own.

    The result isn’t always comfortable.

    Sometimes it’s beautiful.

    Sometimes it’s monstrous.

    Most often…

    it’s simply honest.

    Rowan Evans


    A poet writing by candlelight as handwritten pages transform into stitched-together figures made from words, symbolizing creativity, identity, and the act of creating poetry.
    “Every poem begins as fragments—thoughts, memories, emotions, and images—stitched together until they learn how to breathe.”

    Victor Frankenstein of Rhythm and Rhyme
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I’ll be honest—
    I don’t know who I am
    without this,
    without the ink to bleed—

    what does my life even mean?

    I know it means something—
    but I’ve lost sight of it.

    Because I’m like a god here—
    I control the shape
    the ink takes
    and decide what it makes.

    I create every piece
    in my image.

    I write universes into existence—
    populate them with ghosts,
    lovers, gods and monsters.

    And every version of myself
    I couldn’t survive as alone.

    I translate my mental health
    from the inside, no distance.

    I take my mind
    translate it into lines
    and images—
    stitch them together
    as metaphors—

    Victor Frankenstein
    of rhythm, rhyme and imagery.


    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Pointing Me Home]
    The final poem in the No Metaphor Left Behind trilogy explores dreams, hope, and belonging. Through moonlight, ocean tides, and quiet conversation, Pointing Me Home reflects on carrying hope long before reaching the place you call home.

    [Caller ID: Destiny]
    Sometimes the places we visit in our dreams feel more like home than the places we wake up in. Caller ID: Destiny explores longing, belonging, and the quiet feeling that life is calling you toward somewhere new.

    [Monster Theology]
    What if the monsters under the bed weren’t monsters at all? Monster Theology explores difference, belonging, and the human tendency to fear what we don’t understand through a conversation with the creatures we’ve spent our lives imagining.

    [Frankenstein’s Monster (and I’m the Doctor)]
    Some poems are built to make a point. Others are built to reveal the mechanism. Frankenstein’s Monster (and I’m the Doctor) explores associative thinking, creative chaos, and the strange process of stitching disconnected ideas into something alive.

    [I’ll Be There to See Your Sunrise]
    Love has never come easily to me. This poem explores the fear, vulnerability, and quiet courage required to stay emotionally present when connection begins to matter deeply. “I’ll Be There to See Your Sunrise” is about choosing love despite the risk of heartbreak—and promising to remain long enough to witness someone fully.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Author’s Note

    Music has always been more than background noise to me.

    It’s emotional architecture.

    There are songs that feel tied to specific versions of myself, specific periods of my life, specific emotional states I don’t know how to explain outside of sound.

    When I write, I usually start with music first. Not ideas. Not themes. Feeling.

    I sit in silence with headphones on and let the music guide me somewhere emotionally honest.

    This piece came from thinking about how deeply international my creative influences really are.

    A lot of the sounds that shaped me came from places I’ve never physically been: the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Thailand.

    And over time, those influences stopped feeling external. They became part of my emotional language.

    Part of my rhythm. Part of my imagery. Part of how I understand myself creatively.

    Also: yes, “Morning Daughters” is intentional.

    It’s a poetic translation of the J-pop group Morning Musume because the translated phrasing fit the cadence of the piece better.

    That felt appropriate for a poem about translation, transformation, and reshaping influence into something personal.

    Because that’s ultimately what art is.

    Taking in sound, emotion, memory, culture— and turning it into your own voice.

    Rowan Evans


    A poet wearing headphones sits surrounded by music, poetry pages, and dreamlike international city lights blending together.
    Some people travel by plane.
    I travel by sound.

    Sound as a Vessel
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    I want to take a moment
    to talk about process—

    the way I’ll sit
    in silence,
    with nothing
    but the sound
    from my headphones.

    I sit, unmoved
    and let the music
    wrap around me.

    I let it guide my emotion
    and lead me where it may.

    This is when I reach
    across shores,
    ignoring borders—

    I reach for the sounds
    that soothe me,
    the sounds that move me
    and make me feel.

    I follow the notes
    like they’re breadcrumbs—

    back to the places
    my body has never lived
    but my heart remembers.

    This is how I travel—

    how I return
    to the versions of myself
    I haven’t met yet.

    I put my headphones on
    and drift away—

    through different worlds,
    from XG to Young Ji—
    MILLI and 4EVE.

    Then I drift back—
    MC Sniper, Outsider
    and Drunken Tiger.

    It’s like I walk
    through time,
    using sound
    as the vessel.

    Then I hit Japan,
    Morning Daughters
    surround me.
    Up next THE GAZETTE,
    then Hamasaki Ayumi. (Queen!)

    These are the sounds
    that shaped my DNA.

    Eminem lit the fire,
    Ez Mil made it brighter.

    I broke teeth
    on Lee Hyori. (Queen!)

    And I’ve expanded,
    put more colors
    on the canvas.

    More lines
    in my rhymes.

    BINI, SB
    19 and G22
    Hev Abi, Skusta Clee,
    Sarah Geronimo too—

    just to change the shape
    of the soundscape.

    I use sound like paint
    to make pictures,
    mix it with my emotions
    to find the perfect hue.


    Journey into the Hexverse…

    [Just Knowing You Has Been Enough]
    “Just Knowing You Has Been Enough” is a deeply vulnerable free verse poem about unspoken love, emotional fear, coded confessions, and the quiet truth of caring for someone without needing perfection in return.

    [The Streets I Walk When I Sleep]
    “The Streets I Walk When I Sleep” is a deeply intimate free verse poem about recurring dreams, emotional connection, longing across distance, and the strange feeling of remembering places and moments that have never happened in waking life.

    [Memories From a Life Yet to Come]
    Some dreams feel less like fantasy and more like memory. “Memories From a Life Yet to Come” is a reflective free verse poem about longing, displacement, emotional alignment, and the strange comfort of recognizing yourself more clearly in dreams than in waking life

    [Separate Timelines]
    “Separate Timelines” is a surreal and deeply introspective free verse poem about emotional distance, time zones, vulnerability, and the fear of losing a connection that already feels meaningful before the words are ever spoken aloud.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]

  • Author’s Note

    This one isn’t about place—it’s about influence.

    The things we listen to, the artists we connect with, the sounds that shape how we think and feel… they build something in us.

    Something that doesn’t need borders.

    This piece is me leaning into that—letting all those influences exist in the same space, without trying to separate them by origin or language.

    Because at some point, it stops being “global.”

    It just becomes you.

    Rowan Evans


    Collage of global city elements and music imagery representing identity shaped by sound and culture.
    No borders. No passport. Just sound.

    Global Takeover
    Poetry by Rowan Evans

    Watch me—
    it’s a global takeover.

    Take a right off
    MILLI Ave,
    look for the big house
    on the corner
    of Pixxie Street—
    address: 4EVE.

    Walk up to the gate,
    punch in the code—
    SB19.

    Keep your eyes on me—

    like a sniper, MC.
    I’m The Outsider
    fighting style:
    Drunken Tiger.

    Paper on the table—
    the GazettE.
    Headline reads:
    Filth in the Beauty.

    Sitting at an café
    LM.C in my headphones.

    Notebook open,
    ink scrawled across the page—
    Tommy february6

    it’s a date.

    Stamped in sound—
    no passport needed.

    I built a home
    out of everything
    I listen to.


    Journey into the Hexverse!

    [Of No Single Nation]
    What if belonging isn’t tied to where you’re from? Of No Single Nation explores identity beyond borders, reframing home as something found in connection rather than geography.

    [Two Americans]
    What does it mean to share a country, a language, and still feel completely different? Two Americans explores identity, culture, and the quiet disconnect between people who should feel the same—but don’t.

    If you’re interested in more poetry, you can find it here → [The Library of Ashes]