Poetry is a way of learning how to deal with life’s issues, with defining yourself and your goals, alleviating stress and purging yourself, in a positive way, of negative feelings. Poetry is that part of you that needs to be released, needs to be spoken, needs to be honest.
Pain is honest. Loss is honest. Sorrow is honest. They are honest emotions that sometimes overwhelm us but, when we “let go of them” through the medium of poetry, we lighten the load we carry. Poetry is you speaking your truth. It can be a truth about love or loss. It can be a truth about anger or disillusionment. And the best truth of all is, once you’ve put your feelings into words, and put the words on paper in the form of a poem, you have conquered those feelings, put them into perspective, freed yourself from the hold those emotions had on you.
You can start by writing a single word. (Anger) It really is as simple as that. Or you can write down the feeling you have (I am angry!) Now take that word or feeling and find an image that describes it. I am a storm raging over the mountain… I am a cloud hiding the sun… I am lightning and thunder…
Once you’ve begun, the secret is to let the emotions flow out of you, becoming words that become images that become poetry. When you have finished writing your poem, read it to yourself. Read it out loud. Read it again. I think you will find, as I do, that I can read my own words without the pain I felt before I channeled my emotions into the healing energy of poetry.
(Sorrow/loss)
THE FIRST DAY
It is too late some wounds
cannot be healed the flower
plucked may yet burn red
a while but as the hours pass
it fades and bends to die
and I who sought to touch
the things you loved and learn
their names grew wide inside
your circle for a time now
I watch the morning
spill across the worn wood
of the windowsill and lie
within the space of a single
breath trying to count
the seconds to eternity
the clock orders me to rise
with certain dread I take
the first step on this first day
I come to know you dead
Susan A. Katz (From the book “On the Edge” – all rights reserved)
The time to heal is now. The time to let that held breath out, is now. Poetry is one, powerful way of healing. Learning how to be kind to yourself, is another. Check out @valeriecassandracoaching for other ways to be good to you. There never was a better time to write, than now, this moment – so, write on my friends, write on.