Most of my poems are in response to someone else's pain. My husband survived cancer, while a friend's did not. What should have been a joyful birth for another family was coupled with heartbreak and loss. Meanwhile, my children came easily and healthily into the world. I am happy in my marriage while countless friends' and relatives' marriages ended bitterly and even tragically.
As a result, I have wrestled with whether my writing exposes their emotions and whether I have the right to do that. When I expressed that concern at my Women's Writing Circle a couple of months ago, I was encouraged to reflect, explore, and write on that topic. My opportunity to finish pondering my "right to write" and bring myself to a resolution came with the June prompt to write about our personal history of writing. When we were finished we were to draw a line underneath and write, "Well Done!" and so I have done that here as well.
In my reflection and writing, I realize that though I have not experienced my friends' and relatives' pain first hand, I have walked with them, mourned with them, and experienced my own pain. So, my writing was a release of my pain. Don't I have the right to express my pain and heal from it? My new poem gave myself permission to write.
The Right to Write
If I put into words
The emotions you feel,
Am I causing more pain,
Or allowing you to heal?
I've not walked in your shoes.
My endings were all good.
So did I have the right to write
Just because I thought I could?
I know you're in pain.
It's so easy to see.
And pain needs an outlet.
For me, writing sets it free.
I write what I feel,
What I see, what I think,
Making room in my head
With just paper and ink.
It's not just a matter
Of whether it's right or it's just,
Rather writing heals ME
Making writing a must.
___________________________________________________________________
Well Done!
