RE: Rusty Chains (Jewelry for the suffering)
I feel like you have this pressure on you that you release through poetry but not completely.
I often hear "society expectations" and an extreme amount of responsibility in your voice.
I'd love to see you clearly express the source of this struggle. Maybe with a name and a exact moment it will bring clarity. Like the speaker is talking about something but the reader doesn't know what, we only know the struggle and the emotion. Like loss, denial, anger, and bargaining but without knowing a love one died and the speaker is working through stages of grief.
I liked the image of the rusty chain connected to the speakers soul and the flakes infecting the brain like poison. I could really relate to that image. Well done.
And I'm sure whatever is plaguing you you'll overcome. You're dedicated to writing and sharing and seem resilient.
Wow. Thanks for the awesome comment. You are either super perceptive and smart or you already know me. I've often felt like I am not sharing enough specific details about the emotions I write about. I admit that I do approach a lot of my more emotional poems from an abstract and generalized perspective. I don't always describe the real world events and triggers that may have manifested the emotion or that served as my inspiration.
Upon reflecting on your comments, I've concluded it's mostly because I'm still just hesitant with sharing too much personal information literally with the whole world. It's a dumb excuse I know, but I think genuine.
Thank you so much again for your comments (and wisdom! Probably beyond your years). :)
Thank you for your kind praise. Remember that I'm a trained english literature scholar that has spent hours reading poetry and explicating it; I'm literally trained to see patterns, pick out emotional language, and fine meaning behind words. Any wisdom I have may be masquerading as trained insight.
I understand that hesitance about wanting to hold back. It is scary talking about yourself in a public forum. Worse when you know that people you know are reading your stuff! Or know you personally and see you most private musing and your darkest desires.
I found Hera Lindsay Bird's forward in her self titled poetry book inspiring. She says,
To me that meant It might not be a good idea, and even hurtful to spew all my darkest, deepest (and in my case depraved erotic whims) on paper and screen to share with others, but we do it because to create to produce something pleasing and meaningful screams at our insides until we go mad with desire to put pen to page and fingers to keyboard.
Pain and specifics are scary, but they also create inspiring poetry and prose. If you're brave enough to address specifics, your readers will connect and if you're honest it can be therapeutic for you as well as someone else.
Plus, you can always be specific with still being anonymous. Or write specifically about fake things to throw people off the scent. :)
Either way; keep it up. I highly doubt I know you in person despite all my writing and previous social fluttering I'm a recluse now typing in my cave while my guy rubs my feet watching Netflix.