Confessional poetry

[Droopy]

Some of my poems are confessional in nature. The speaker is me, the poet, and the poems are about what I've really experienced and some of the private thoughts that I had during those experiences. Do you like to read and/or write confessional poetry? According to one of my poetry instructors people who write confessional poetry are sometimes not wrapped too tight. He soon found out that was the case with me ;) Here's the short version of what happened to me before I was hospitalized the second time for mental illness.

Schizoaffective

Having gone through all the pain,
I thought it impossible to be sane.
Having dealt with so much sorrow,
I thought there’d be no tomorrow.

Lying on my bed half dead,
“The End” flowing through my head.
My only love and release,
beer made the voices cease.

I didn’t know that I was ill,
that life could change with a pill.
I was on a downward spiral,
of ignorance and denial.

Then one day the real crash came,
with nobody but my brain to blame.
With loaded gun I searched the place,
looking for a malevolent face.

With no one there I fled,
the voices were all in my head.
But how real they’d seemed,
not as if something I’d dreamed.

This story has a happy ending,
my mind has since been mending.
No more of reality bending,
a doctor was indeed attending.

[oneighty]

1. But.

Screaming out in pen and ink is also a therapy of sorts.

180

[Droopy]

2. Yes

I used to do a lot of screaming out in pen and ink before I discovered psychiatric medication. Not that everybody who does that sort of thing is mentally ill. I think my poetry teacher had it wrong about people who write confessional poetry. You don't have to be crazy to do it. I wish I had my poetry from my screaming days, but I burned it all in a horrible fit of depression.

[KaliTracy]

3. thanks for trusting us enough to share this with us. I think that there

are levels to confessional poetry (not as in one level is better than another -- but as in one level is closer to the "actual incident" than another).

I love Sharon Olds -- I first read her when I was a Freshman in college and her first collection Satan Says had just come out. She said things about her family (specifically her father) I would have never dared to express on paper. It wasn't until almost 20 years later -- at a writing retreat (where I did not go to write poetry) that poems began to pour out of me.


on edit: I've written poetry since I was young, and throughout my college experience, etc -- what I meant to say, is that I had no intention on writing poetry at that retreat (though I had recently been writing again) -- but the words came anyway...

[JitterbugPerfume]

4. Powerful words Droopy

(((((((HUG))))))))

[Droopy]

6. Thank you

[Droopy]

5. I've read a few Sharon Olds poems

I ran across a few of her poems in an English text. One was a love poem that was very provocative and the other was a poem about her breasts that I think is somewhat famous. I've enjoyed what I've read of her's.

[EvolvedChimp]

7. I love it

I just recently joined DU and actually made my first post on this forum tonight. I will be happy to join as long as you keep writing.

[Droopy]

8. Thank you

I have several poems on my computer, but I haven't written one in over a year. You can bet that when I manage to scratch a new one out I'll post it here for your consideration. Let's see some of your stuff!

[EvolvedChimp]

9. I have

My very first just tonite in the poetry forum

[Droopy]

10. Cool

I have responded to it.

[EFerrari]

11. I'm a lapsed Catholic. Can't tell the difference between

confessing and reflecting. :rofl:

Here's one that might illustrate what I mean.

Topography

Tracing the light
tan line
my sons stretched across
my belly, I imagine you drawing
away from the topography
of this body; imagine you seeing
this: a map of
my boys, their father,(yours
your woman, marked
mother, lover, that woman that lived
in her body). Imagine you seeing
not me in relief
but half-formed world unreadable,
no impression
of me but all
those that have wandered
through this body.

Imagine you afraid
to be lost, not asking directions
and I imagine you squinting

[KaliTracy]

12. i like this poem very much!

hope you are able to share more with us! :)

[EFerrari]

13. Thanks! I've been getting that restless feeling lately and really

wanting to make time for poetry. It's great that you guys are here.

:hi:

[KaliTracy]

14. that's the same reason I'm here -- to jump start me again -- I've been

in writing limbo for a while.

edit: thanks to Droopy and everyone who signed to have this group for pulling this together!

[ALago1]

15. Hey there

Just wanted to comment saying that I thought this was a really strong poem. You managed to keep the intensity and mood of each verse very high. I liked it.

[Droopy]

18. Thank you

I wrote it about a year and a half removed from the incident in question, but that memory will be with me forever.

[pinerow]

16. Well my friend...as a fellow traveler, i am working on

talking back to those voices...sometimes they see my point and sometimes they don't...I have managed to stay out of institutions, Meds seem to work...I'm with ya.

[Droopy]

17. I wish my voices were more reasonable

But they just want to invade my private thoughts and tear me down saying the most cruel things. Meds have been a life saver for me- literally. I don't know where I'd be right now without them.