Surviving

An ode to the struggle and relentlessness of being a writer, despite it being unimaginable to not be one

I write because 
if I didn't
you'd find me dead with
a pen by my side. 
I try to break free
from the bones that control me,
but the only cure I have found
is shaping words into poetry.
For a decade 
I was lost in my own mind
fighting to find people
who were my kind
of people. 
I see myself 
in the words of other writers,
bleeding down wrists
and finding paper.
I write this poetry
so I don't feel like a ghost,
at least now
I am a host 
to something greater than myself. 
I find myself shaking
under the blankets 
of my unspoken words,
I can't sleep
unless they are free.
You see,
writing is an outlet
for my less than pretty thoughts
that get caught behind
fears and lies
and never feeling alive.
I write 
because my body still feels the need to fight
and writing these words
is the only way I will survive.

Reviews

[Nolo Segundo]

As a late-blooming poet, I can relate to the spirit of your 'spot-on' poem. Congrats on your win!

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Wow excellent enjoyed this thanks for entry into my current competition!

[Trouble]

Well, I'm gonna lose the contest. lol, this is great, I love it.

[ElizaB]

I kept rereading this.
You conjure such imagery, such passion for the written word. I fee the same. In writing, we bind ourselves, we are alive, we are real. Not the ghost of which you speak, but living through our emotions and our words. Only when they are read and responded to by another do we often 'feel' like a writer, I guess that is the purpose of writing. An attempt to be understood and to understand our surroundings.
It seems like you know where your own writing journey is taking you, why you write and what emotions this evokes; I'd say you've found your voice already.

[Wild Rose]

Got me thinking
Why do I write?

Lecture notes: Travel log: complaints to firms who refuse to listen; Oh poems on here

[Onlyme]

I can really understand. How poetry helps you break free from the chains that bind you and hold you back from doing anything. The struggles. To be just you free.

[Ally Ann]

Often when I am writing I feel like the most me that I can be. This poem touches on that and also the fact that writing is a part of my being. I don't think that I could be who I am without the ability to spill my thoughts onto a page. It is, like you said, freeing.

[Ariana Omnomnom]

Writing poetry is the only coping mechanism I ever had that always worked. Every other way of coping either didn't work at all, made things worse, started to die out, or was only effective some of the time. I often say I cry in rhymes because poetry is the only kind of writing that works for me. So far all of your writing is great and I hope for more.

[Ally Ann]

Thank you very much! Writing has been such a useful tool in my life that I see it as a part of who I am now. It helps me to understand myself, but also let go of things that have been latching on to me for far too long.

[Ariana Omnomnom]

Me as well. You write very well ❤️

[Coyote Poetry]

I do understand. Writing had saved my life many times. I liked your honest thoughts. Thank you Ally Ann for sharing the amazing poetry.
Coyote

[Zayir]

I completely understand how you feel. Some of us write to transfer the pain in our hearts to poetry. The more the pain the more the emotion that is felt when reading pieces like this. Sometimes it feels like if there was no pain some of us would never write. Thank you for deciding to write a piece for those who go through hell, including you.

[Ally Ann]

In many ways I believe that writers become writers because of the pain that we feel. As you said, without this pain, how would we write? While the pain is hard to deal with, writing can help all of us to express ourselves and connect with others that feel the same way, which is what I think is so beautiful about the entire process.