Find Something Difficult To Do And Do It Write

I think I may be having too much fun with these pun titles.  I had a teacher in high school tell me that you can tell a pun is good when it inflicts physical pain upon its victim.  I guess that is true in most cases, but it hurts so good.

My senior year of high school consisted of numerous pursuits of an athletic and academic in nature.  I was also involved in church activities, plays, and piano.  My schedule was packed about as tight as it could be.  I remember feeling overwhelmed and slightly unfulfilled by it all.  Then, my English did a unit on poetry.  I was assigned to analyze a work by Sylvia Plath.  I do not recall which of her many poems it was, but I can never forget how the emotions she conveyed attracted my attention.  It was as if she had cut her self open and these words came spilling out of her, unable to be dammed by propriety or social restraint.  To my untrained eye many of the phrases appeared non sequitorial. Although I could not make sense of everything she said, I knew she was raw and I knew she was real.  It was especially exciting when I had a wild idea: maybe I could do something like this.

I know Sylvia Plath is not much of a role model.  I know how she met her end.  But I truly believe that her poetry was instrumental in preserving her short life to the length that it lasted.  All of us are imperfect.  Poetry is simply a medium through which we can attempt to make sense of a complicated reality.