Meet Sydney Marsman | Poet & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sydney Marsman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sydney, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
I’d say the principle I treasure the most, especially in my writing, is honesty. And by that I don’t mean just telling the truth, I mean getting to the core of the point I’m trying to make, without excluding any details, whether they are happy details or not. The reason I love writing so much is because I like to give words to feelings people may be feeling, but don’t know how to put into words. Poetry is powerful because it’s true. I’ve found that the poems I write that get the strongest reactions are the ones where I didn’t shy away from the hard emotions. It can be scary to post poems like that because you don’t know who will read them or what they will think of you when they do., but I think that the vulnerability pays off in the end. Writing can be a beautiful reflection of reality, often with a hopeful ending. But the ending isn’t always bright and shiny. And I keep it that way on purpose, because endings of our stories in life aren’t always bright and shiny. Everyone can relate to this truth, so in my (sometimes brutal) honesty, I try to make my writing resonate.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started out as many of us do – as a confused kid trying to find ways to cope with the hardships of life. When I was in middle school I found myself in the midst of some hard family circumstances, and one of the only things I found solace in was words and writing. I think writing in my journal felt like the only way I could truly express how I was feeling. I wrote stories, poems, and bits and pieces of sentences and words that felt relatable to me. Looking back, I kind of laugh at how dark and dramatic it all was, but it was true to how I was feeling at the time. Eventually, I enrolled in college at Florida State University and declared an English major, with most of my focus in poetry. I wrote for a couple school magazines and I started a personal blog where I posted about spiritual discoveries I had while dealing with an ongoing medical issue. I was featured in a medical magazine where I wrote an article on how to cope with diseases. After that, I started to receive a lot of good positive feedback from friends and family on my blog, and I think that fueled me to continue pushing myself in writing. I graduated college with my English degree, and didn’t have a single clue what to do with it. I took some odd jobs, moved around a bit, and wrote a lot of poems. I’d say I eventually found my niche in short form poetry, mostly bite-sized poems that pack a hard punch at the end. After lots of writing and editing, I composed my own book of poetry titled “Misunderstanding” and sold them to friends and family through my Instagram account. Since then, I’ve been learning graphic design and finding ways to incorporate this other dimension into my poetry. Now I am working a full-time job in Atlanta in an unrelated field, but I am still pursuing poetry and design and finding ways to reach my community mainly through Instagram and freelance projects, hoping that it will lead somewhere meaningful.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Atlanta is my favorite place to show people around town. The most important thing would be coffee shops. I would probably start in midtown and take them to my favorite coffee spot, East Pole Coffee Co. Then we might hit up some cool thrift stores like Buffalo Exchange, and maybe Goodwill just for kicks. I’d also take a day to walk on the beltline. We might start at Muchacho coffee and walk through Krog’s Street market, all the way down to Ponce City market. There we could check out the shops and maybe grab a beer, and we could take some artsy pictures of the cool graffiti along the way. Also, playing frisbee and/or roller blading at Piedmont Park is a must. The sunsets there are beautiful, and we could capture our classic best friend pic with the city in the background.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Shoutout to To Write Love On Her Arms and the book Crush by Richard Siken

Instagram: sydspoetry

Image Credits
Amanda Mills