Poetry (A form of escapism, cry for help, mirror to your soul)

Depression / suicidal / cutting post seem to gather more than their fair share of posts. Were a melancholy lot in here. I have noticed poetry for myself tends to become a way of expressing myself when I feeling my worst. It is a way of screaming out while still hiding from the world.

In some ways I think my poetry was a way of seeing myself because the mirror was not giving out in clues. Take a look at your poetry. Have you learnt a lot about yourself through your writings?

When I write it tends to be when I'm sad or extremely depressed. I've noticed that a lot of my poems have been placed in the sad and dark areas of the site and few in the happier ones. Everyone tells me (IRL) that my sad/dark poems are the best out of them all. I guess that life is strange like that, but I do use my poems as an outlet for emotions that I don't think that I should hold. I would never want to do something that I would regret later in life.

Alyson

Hmm...I have to agree with both of you guys...Poetry is in a way,very sad for me,because its the only way I know how to express myself....and when I do a fall in this world of saddness and tears..sometimes joy too =) and its because of many moments of saddness in writting my poems...that I have to say that many time I refuse to write poems...sad to say but its true...

I don't right suicidal or cutting things or any of that but my writing is not generally happy. I using writing as a constructive release rather than finding a destructive release. At least I am accomplishing something and as you mentioned, its a way of saying something without actually telling someone (if that made sense). I have noticed that many writers or artists are quite often cynical or unhappy people. Their works focus on deep, or 'unhappy' thoughts or aspects of life. I think this is more than coincidence. People of the arts often seem to have strong emotions, those emotions are generally what inspires their works.

Yes i have.
it kinda scares me though when i look back into the poems of my past.

Icarus ... hope i spelled that right ... some people have so much pain that they write about it........still have loads left and dont know what to do ...so they turn to destructive ways of coping with it

Writing poems is a way of expressing feelings. So its not suprising that loads of people write about suicide or self harm or things like that...
I mean most of my poems are in the sad catagorie, and whenever i write them im usually feelingdown. But then gaain when im feleing cheerful i try and write about other topics. (Mostly nature becuase i love nature poems).

I agree, I would tend to write about nature or philosophical issues, but I get dragged down by personal issueas and I feel before I can write about anything outwith myself I have to explore the emotions inside through my writing.

It's good to see a topic like this, it's been a while since I've read anything I felt worth replying to, thanks.

*VioletRaven*

Poetry for me is a way to let out what i'd never tell people...it's not like suicidal people go around sayin g "I want to kill myself"...so people write...for me it's a need to write...i write since i learned to do it, in the first grade...it helps me to survive...

I once found a poem in a long lost file on my computer that I had written in about second grade. It made me so surprised because I still felt the same way. I have always used words to espress myself. But less in poems and more in just pages of words, i think. It requires less thinking. I read some pages from just last year and wow, it all surprised me. My pages are just emotional explosions. Poetry takes everything that upsets me and helps me put into words. It helps me make my disasters beautiful.

Word.

In a way you can learn so much about a person by reading their poetry on here. I've been surprized both ways. Somepeople I have avoided due to their poems others I've wanted to get to know. Sad thing if I have read my poems I think I would have avoided myself.

I've been that way sometimes too. When I write a poem I like to go back and read it. Sometimes I wonder if it was actually me who wrote it or if I got it from somewhere else. A lot of my first poems were really depressing, I don't think I ever posted them.