NEDERLAND — Many writers express themselves and demonstrate vulnerability through their craft. It not only serves as communication between the writer and the reader, but as a form of processing.

That's why Nederland Streets Supervisor Joshua Davis gravitated toward poetry as a young man. The art form allowed him to express his internal anger and pain.

“When I was a teenager, I had a lot of normal angst and also a lot of trauma that I didn’t really know how to work through or process,” says the town resident. 

Davis’s primary outlet at the time was the hyper-expressive atmosphere of heavy metal music. That intense emotionality inspired Davis to find his own methods of expression.

“I just started writing, started reading it to people, trying to get it out there to other people and connect with other people that way,” reflects Davis. “It’s given me a way to express things that I would internalize otherwise.”

July marks 18 years for Davis as a Nederland resident, who also serves as the client liaison for the Nederland Food Pantry. The mountain community holds a special place in his heart.

“I grew up in Alabama, and I definitely felt like it was a stifling atmosphere,” says Davis. “It seemed to be a little more dangerous to be different. People up here are all here for the same reasons. Everyone seems to have a level of acceptance and keeping to themselves that I never really experienced growing up.”

Davis’s writing allows him to directly process his thoughts, and sharing his writing allows him to connect with others in a much deeper way. He primarily shares his poetry through social media, focusing more on his direct thoughts and aiming to avoid tailoring to a specific audience. He hopes sharing his own thoughts allows others to process theirs, too.

“I think that culturally, especially as men, we’re pushed to push things down, to keep them to ourselves, to not express our emotions in healthy ways,” says Davis. “If there’s some way that your writing about something affects someone else in a positive way when they read it, to me, that’s the purpose of artistic expression.”

Read Joshua Davis poem, "Bright Days"