Meet Stone Taylor of Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stone Taylor

Stone, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started writing years ago when I was a child. It always seemed like the natural thing to do, to write when I was bored or sad or happy. I always wrote poems or short stories when I was done with homework (sometimes instead of homework) or if I had a spare minute in class.
I won a writing contest when I was 17 and got the chance to go down to Austin to do my poem in front of a huge audience, which was frightening but also proved to myself how much potential writing had for my future.
After that, I was apart of UNC’s slam team but due to my poor academic performance I couldn’t compete with them. After that, it took me a long time to come back to writing because I was so sad and ashamed of myself. It wasn’t until May of last year when I started sharing my work and going to open mics and then slamming again.
This year, I’m grateful that I got to go to a regional slam and that my long hiatus from writing has not diminished my enthusiasm or passion for writing.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Most of my struggles involved shame and self confidence. I took such a long break from writing (almost 8 years) I wasn’t sure if there was still a poetry scene to return to. I’m glad that there’s still such a community and I’m happy to be one of the pillars of support for it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a slam poet!
Slam poetry is a competitive form of poetry that focuses on performance aspects of writing. Most people think poetry and think of books, written word, but slam shifts focus to HOW the poem is said.
I write a lot of types of poems but I primarily consider myself a love poet, as I try to write about love in all its forms—self love, platonic love, romantic love, even love for my community.
I think if you asked people in the community what I’m known for I assume they’d say my more humorous poems. I try to blend serious stuff with my jokes, I had a brief stint as a comedian and I felt like that influ need my writing

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think every time going on stage is a risk, but other than that I don’t consider myself much of a risk taker. I’m impulsive by nature and I’ve spent a long time unlearning some compulsive and irrational habits.
I’ve done some poems about what I would call “risky topics” and that has never panned out for me because I don’t relate to the subject matter as much. I always write what I know now and I don’t go outside of those subjects.
I’ve recently taken the plunge on a project that I’ve been thinking about for a very long time after a prolonged period of consideration, and I’m excited to be sharing that with people in the next few weeks.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @persephone_stone