How Poetry Saved My Life
And it seems I am not alone
Writing, and in particular, poetry has often been described as ‘a savior.’
Jonathan Greene wrote beautifully, poetically, that ‘poetry is a release of the soul. It allows me to turn my insides out and expose them. And when I do, I realize they aren’t full of darkness anymore. My insides are beautiful. And full of words. And thoughts. And hope.’
Jenny Justice writing from the heart, said for her, poetry is ‘a gift, a voice, a drive, a passion that just is or is not.’
I describe it as such because it saved me. The words that poured from my pen, keyboard, soul, saved me from the deep dark numb hole that my life had become. I couldn’t really stop the flood. And for me, the catalyst to this outpouring was love.
Life can have a terrible way of creeping up on you. Turn your back for a minute and years have suddenly gone by. And sometimes terrible things happen that you have no control over. To all of us. Any of us. I had done an excellent job of numbing myself to many of those experiences over the years.
It’s not like I haven’t had wonderful experiences, because I have. I enjoyed my children, we have done some wonderful things together, I found a career and workplace that was fulfilling and enjoying, yet still, there was an emptiness. It seems that unhappiness had rooted itself within my very core and I hardly even realized. I didn’t even know it was there.
Until I started to feel. When love crept in. I have written about that, a little, in fully formed words. It was a time where I challenged and changed many things in my life. It was like an awakening within me that allowed me to improve my physical health (I lost 19kg/41lbs), my mental health (I could feel again), and as a result, my creativity blossomed.
It was poetry that helped me deal with the intensity of feeling I was experiencing. Because it was enormous, this tidal wave of emotion. It was as if years of emotion and feeling had been gathering behind some invisible wall, a numb barrier, and now that it was gone I was being flung around within its waves, at its mercy. It was both wonderful and terrifying.
For the past three years, poetry has been my solace, my refuge, my release, my savior. It has helped me deal with times of intense longing, intense love, intense passion. All the intensity of feeling. The beautiful, wonderful feelings and the nasty, clawing, dark feelings. Because with any significant life change comes pain and grief as well as enlightenment and wonder.
It is poetry that has enabled me to grow as a person. To articulate emotion, joy, heartache, sorrow, and wonder. The best thing about being a poet now is the ability we have to share it with others. I never intended to share the words I write. It was raw emotion that started me on this journey. It was a release. But with the encouragement of my partner, I started posting my poetry on Instagram and it has grown from there.
I am relatively new to this platform, posting regularly only in the last few weeks, but I have found a supportive and receptive community that shares a poetic vision.
People like Christina Ward 💗 who has welcomed me into the POM-poet world and her creative space (complete with events, like making your own chapbooks!) People like Gretchen Lee Bourquin 💗POM-poet!💗who has a beautiful publication, Vagabond Roads, where she has welcomed my poetry about longing. Creative souls like Dennett who has cultivated a beautiful garden and allowed me space for my nature poetry. Kindred spirits like Trisha Traughber who, like me, lives in a country she didn’t grow up in, speaks multiple languages and provides a space for me to share my multi-lingual, multi-land experiences.
So that is why I write. Poetry, prose, satire, listicles even. I write because I now feel. Because it helps me process what I am feeling, how I am feeling. I can now write about the beautiful things I see and feel, but also about the dark things. The funny things. The ridiculous things.
I am now a part of a community, a network. I am slowly finding like minds and kindred spirits, spread out all over the globe. People who share my passion for words. I have found people who share my humor, on the good ship MuddyUm, with wonderful Captain Susan Brearley. I have found mentors like Michelle Monet who encourage and support me.
Writing poetry has become a daily habit for me. Now I am writing in different forms. Expanding, exploring, growing. Who knows where it will lead?
I would like to thank Ansel Guarneros for posing the question ‘why do you write?’ in his Open Letter to Poets.
Sources and wonderful reads:
Lisa is a teacher of English Literature and History. An Australian, she now lives in Finland, enjoying love and life. She has had poems published in several books and is working on several projects, including a photography-poetry collection. Lisa posts regularly on Instagram (liisak_love).
