A Poem A Day Keeps The Doctor Away

Feature Article: Writing the Prayer of Your Life advice column for February...
A poem a day keeps the doctor away!
Some days are like this for me: not much works. My brain,nespecially, seems to not be able to figure out really basicnthings, like what to do, and what to do next. I stumblenaround like a walking study in frustration.

Do you ever have days like that? If so, how do you dealnwith it?

All sorts of factors might contribute to this state ofnbeing. ADHD might be one of them. Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, nor Chronic Lyme Disease might be part of it.

Seasonal Affective Disorder might be a factor. (Yesnit’s winter and has been grey for a week.)

Or, insomnia and sleep deprivation. ( It’s true I was upntill past midnight and awake at 6:30, of course I amntired….)

All of that is worth something. But, how much?
It does help to understand the various factors that contribute to mood,nenergy, and effective brain functioning. But it also helps tonkeep all those things in perspective.
Sometimes what you need most is a nap and a good meal with enough protein. Sometimes, though, it's your soul that's really hungry.

Does it ever occur to you to turn to poetry in those moments?
When was the last time, in a moment of stress, you tooknfive minutes to read a poem? Or write one?

I didn’t say you had to write a good poem, a Pulitzer Prize nwinning poem, just, a poem.

Some true, precise words about this moment.

Maybe today is a really hard day for you. Okay. Let it be hard.
Then, look at it with the eyes of a poet. What do younsee?

“Poetry,” says poet Galway Kinnell, “is somebodynstanding up, so to speak, and saying what it is like fornthem to be on this earth, at this moment.”

He doesn’t say, if you notice, “Write a poem and younwill feel better, live longer, lose ten pounds and neve
suffer from despair in your life ever again.”

He says, poetry is when you stand up and tell it likenit is. You tell the truth. About your own life. It’s that simple.
And, that simple, elegant, act, will save you.
Mostly, I think, what we need to be saved from is our ownnnegative minds telling us we’re not good enough and wenshould be doing something different or better than we are.

This is not to say that we may not want to change somethingnin our lives. Or that brain chemistry and being affected bynlack of sunlight in February in New England are not real.
These things are real, and I take them very seriously,nbecause I do have a pretty sensitive brain.

But here is what I’ve learned: If I don’t also, talknto, and listen to, my own soul, the exercise and lightntherapy only take me so far. Some days, I do the writingnafter the light therapy and exercise and meditation. Somendays I do it before.

But I do it. Every day. Write something. Especially onnthe days it doesn’t seem to matter. The days I get toonmany rejection slips in the mail or the end of the booknfeels like it will never come, and the mess in my housenseems totally unmanageable, I take the time to write.

Maybe I’ll never get anything but rejection slips fornthis poem that I loved so much when I wrote it. MaybenI’ll never finish the book, never have a neat and orderlynhouse. So what? Those things don’t matter so much after
I’ve written something real.

Why is that? It’s because I’ve remembered who I am.
Not who I think I should be, not what this editor wants orndoesn’t want for the latest edition of her magazine, notnwhat the dirty dishes tell me when I look at them fromnsomewhere outside of myself.

When you write, you get yourself back. And you find outnsomething new, because this moment, after all, is a placenyou’ve never been before. And if you do your job well,npay attention to what’s in front of you, you come home, to this moment.
You start to see it and yourself, more clearly.

Your poems, the ones you write and the ones you read, keep younhonest. Honesty keeps you healthy.

I encourage to remember that your own words, when you write from an authentic place inside you, might be the best medicine you can find.
Try this:
Find a poem that you love today. Read it to yourself, out loud. Then, take the first line and let that be the jumping off point for your own writing. Write for ten minutes. That's all you have to do, sometimes, to turn your day around, and come back home to you.
And here’s a reminder, for all of you who are working onnfinishing your novel, or revising your poems. Even if younpublish your book and win the Pulitzer Prize, (and I hopenyou do, if that’s your goal) your work is still prettynmuch the same as it is today. Show up. Tell the truth.
Listen to what you hear.

You write. On the good days, when the world is in lovenwith what you are doing. And you write, on the days whennnobody seems to care. You write when you’re sure it’snonly for you, and you write when you think maybe….justnmaybe, somebody else might be interested in what you’renwriting.

You write because your soul depends on it. And what else,nreally, do we have, when it comes down to it???

Blessings on all the workings of your soul.