something in me died on election day

[luvMIdog]

I used to write at least one poem every single day. I have not written a poem since election day and I'm all dried up inside. I've completely stopped doing anything artistic. Everything has been sucked right out of me. I'm full of feelings of anxiety and doom. Has anyone else been affected like this?

[jrthin]

1. Me too. nt

[NCTraveler]

2. "I'm full of feelings of anxiety and doom."

Sit down with a pen and paper. Your poems might read a bit different than they did before. That alone might be a bit frightening.

I'm pulling for you. Take care of yourself. This has been very difficult.

[DK504]

3. Yes

Have this feeling in the pit of stomach, like a know. I feel like I need to keep looking over my shoulder.

I also have this feeling I need to start prepping.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Yes.

[safeinOhio]

5. Put it to work

go to format.com and see how artist gathering to fight this crap. That include poets.

[Donkees]

6. Excerpt: The Faithful Gardener, Epilogue, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Excerpt:

Through the lives we lived, I learned the harshest gift-lesson to accept, and the most powerful I know-that is, knowledge, an absolute certainty that life repeats itself, renews itself, no matter how many times it is stabbed, stripped to the bone, hurled to the ground, hurt ridiculed, ignored, scorned, looked down upon, tortured or made helpless.

I learned from my dear people as much about the grave, about facing the demons, and about rebirth as I have learned in all my psychoanalytic training and all my twenty-five years of clinical practice. I know that those who are in some ways and for some time shorn of the belief in life itself-that they ultimately are the ones who will come to know best that Eden lies underneath the empty field, that the new seed goes first to the empty and open places-even when the open place is a grieving heart, a tortured mind, or a devastated spirit.

What is this faithful process of spirit and seed that touches empty ground and makes it rich again? It’s greater workings I cannot claim to understand. But I know this: Whatever we set our days to might be the least of what we do, if we do not also understand that something is waiting for us to make ground for it, something that lingers near us, something that loves, something that waits for the right ground to be made so it can make its full presence known.

I am certain that as we stand in the care of this faithful force, that what has seemed dead is dead no longer, what has seemed lost is no longer lost, that which some have claimed impossible, is made clearly possible, and what ground is fallow is only resting- resting and waiting for the blessed seed to arrive on the wind with all Godspeed.

And it will.

[snooper2]

7. Might be a good idea to get off the intertubes for a while and watch some movies

Maybe start working on the garden or something I don't think we are all going to die LOL...


And if we do- You won't be here to remember it anyway so it doesn't matter-

[luvMIdog]

8. hugs and kisses to all of you who answered me

After I read this thread words began to flow in my head. Crazy huh? Maybe I just needed to say I've been afraid out loud and get that off my chest. I have a head full of words flowing now. Thank you so very very much You have no idea how much you have helped me.

[LisaM]

9. Yes, and I feel much lonelier.

I can't express how much this election hurt me to many fellow progressives for fear they'll start scolding me to be more introspective and to stop caring about the things I identify with. It's got me really closed up.

[NCTraveler]

11. That is a very difficult aspect of this and many of us have to deal with it.

For me it's all about outside of the confines of DU. There are many people who are a daily part of my life who I feel I have to conceal my thoughts from. It stinks.

[LisaM]

12. I feel that I often have to conceal my thoughts INSIDE of DU

The most recent outrage is this stupid book the NYT is slobbering all over, once again chastising us for not running (I guess) on a platform of racism and lies about bringing back manufacturing jobs.

[NCTraveler]

14. I expect it here.

There are so many things I care about that I can talk about that I don't really worry about what I can't say. I simply expect it here and it's been that way since I can remember. It gets to me when it is outside of DU. Even in my own living room when family comes over. That's when it hits me. The loneliness. The silence.

I do get what you are saying. I am not dismissing it.

[LisaM]

16. I'm sorry. I feel that in a larger sense this has been going on since 2000.

I distinctly remember a friend who just didn't like the recount (she likes to tie things up in a neat package way ahead of time), and saying, "I wish Al Gore would just give up". Years later, well into the Obama administration, this same friend said, "Gore should have fought harder". I was kind of stunned and reminded her of what she'd said before, though I had to keep it ratcheted way down so I didn't sound like I was the one who'd flipped a switch and lost it. It's like an amnesia descends on people.

[Lotusflower70]

10. Hang in there

I certainly understand and appreciate that feeling. But fight where you can. Focus local. Feed that creative side. Some of my writing has been angry and dark since the election but it has been cathartic. Take care of your exercise and nutrition. Try new things. Rely on your support network. Be well and take care of you.

[LisaM]

13. If you can't write actual poems right now, maybe you can jot down lines and impressions

as they occur to you. I've been going through old notebooks I carry around with me, and often find little insights I had that I'd forgotten about.

[emulatorloo]

15. You are not alone.

I don't feel like talking about it right now. But may come back later.

[Dem_4_Life]

17. You are not alone.

All my friends feel the same way. I have a friend in California that keeps calling me having panic attacks. My cousin who runs a women's art gallery in Austin is really struggling and worried along with the other people in the art community in Austin.

Hang in there you are not alone.

[LeftInTX]

18. I'm having trouble concentrating...

I used to watch Netflix, but I can't concentrate.
My yard is a mess....

I have to keep moving.
I'm involved with Indivisibles which is great.
It has become almost like a 12-step group for me.
Every day, I try to do an activity, then on Friday I got bronchitis, so I'm stuck at home.

But still, I'm not the same.
I can't concentrate.

[triron]

19. I'm just very angry.

and frustrated that this traitor bastard lying son of a bitch is still in the WH and 'normalized' by MSM.

[reflection]

20. Interesting.

After the shock wore off, I was very depressed (still am, to some degree). But I decided it was time to feed my soul, so I did something I have wanted to do for years, I took up the piano. I practice for hours every night and it just calms my soul. So it's interesting that your muse left as a result of this and mine showed up. I hope yours returns.