[HELP] How can I start writing poetry again?
Hi. This seems like a very dumb question, and it probably is, so let me explain.
I started writing poetry when I was 13 and I think I was pretty good at it. I participated in a poetry contest when I was 14 and I won first place, the poets that came from overseas and judged the poems told me they were amazed by it and that I should keep sending them poems. I kept writing and I really liked it, it was my method of venting. A few things happened and I fell into a deep depression and I went into A LOT of stuff psychologically. Eventually, I stopped writing poems.
And here I am 2 years later, I'm 16 and on 3 psychiatric medications. I've tried to write again, I really have, but I can't write anymore, as much as I try to write something I just can't. I really hate what I currently write and I can't translate my feelings into words. It's like a perpetual artistic block. It makes me feel so bad because this used to be my way of venting and not being able to write feels like having my tongue cut off, I have no voice left. I think my problem is that I've been pressuring myself into trying to be good and I can't write anything just for the fun of it because I feel like it MUST be a quality work. I never really studied structure or rhyme, I just wrote down what I wanted or what felt right and it seemed to work out, but if I want to write something decent I need to learn. I've been reading poetry too, a few months ago I bought a book of poems by an Uruguayan poet I really like and I've been reading it when I have time to do so. The good thing about my emotional crisis(? was that during an episode of distress I rediscovered a long-lost love for literature and I've been reading a lot ever since. I wish the same thing could happen with poetry, but those 2 years without practicing took a toll on me and now I just can't write at all and it makes me feel terrible. I'm so sorry if this is dumb or stupid, I just want to be able to write like I used to again. Are there any resources or tips that y'all found helpful? And I'm sorry if I've misspelled something, I'm Honduran.