Ah April! The special month dedicated to the celebration of poetry. As a lover of this form of writing, I am delighted to find poems in a wide variety of formats and styles saturate our environment like the flowers of Spring. Throughout the month, it’s not hard to gather a special bouquet of favorite works shared by other enthusiasts online or here and there in plain sight.
My personal relationship to this art form is bittersweet. At an early age reading and writing poems provided the outlet that kept me anchored while I watched my mother unravel with bipolar disorder. Later, as a new mother with children of my own, poetry was the vehicle that enabled me to process the trauma and emotional challenges of all those growing-up years. After a number of what I called “my mother poems” were published in various literary journals, I pulled them together and reworked them into my debut Young Adult novel in verse, Crazy, first published in 2014.
Some years after Crazy’s publication, I was devastated to learn the rest of the family story that had been kept from me. My father, who had been my rock, the one who nurtured me through my mother’s illness, had violated my half-sister as a teenager. She kept this secret from me all her life, and made her husband promise to tell me after she was gone. He did so shortly before his own death. Once again, I desperately needed to process this traumatic information, and I naturally turned to poetry.
I guess you could call my chapbook, Thoughts at Crossings, “my father story.” Because it came out just as we relocated to a new community, and because there was some family pushback, I never really launched it. My original intention to reach out to anyone who has been in an abusive situation still stands. You can purchase it here, OR if you will contact me at linda.phillips4866@gmail.com and commit to writing a brief review (several sentences will do) on Goodreads, I will send you a free digital copy.
Poetry lingers in the April air. Breathe it in and enjoy!
Until next time,
Linda
It is not uncommon for persons with mental illness to have experienced some form of abuse in their life. Charlotte Clubhouse is one organization that works to help stabilize persons with mental health issues. Click here to find out more about their vital work and how you can help restore lives that have been interrupted by mental illness.
“Medicines and surgery may cure, but only reading and writing poetry can heal.” – J. Arroyo, author
