My name is Rodrigo Tuma and I've loved poetry my whole life and I recognize that for some

other poets they might look at that and think oh god that makes you a proper poet and

I feel like I've come late to poetry but I also have been somebody who has compared

myself to people for a long time and comparison really can be the seat of death for artists.

I really like looking at what it is I can learn from other pieces of art but comparing

and thinking that something is going to take away my voice can it can really undo you.

I've met so many people and I'm part of the community where I have to develop a relationship

with comparison and a relationship with criticism too that might move me forward rather than

stopping me.

Artists by Vidyan Ravinthiran.

When you were young you'd draw and paint then your brother said all you could do was

copy down what was in front of you.

So you stopped.

Sometimes you start again.

He's bought you watercolors.

He is a saint but what's done is done.

I don't for more than a re-arriving moment understand for his role in your family was

mine in mine.

How could I never learn till watching you what sketching means touching with your eyes

what has been given again and again and again.

It's the way you were raised.

The way you were erased but I envy your line that self-forgetful vigilance.

...