School

As I move on into the future, I am unsure whether or not I am happy or sad.  I am plagued with uncertainty, and confusion.   The words, "You don't know what you have, until you no longer have it," are hitting me hard, because I finally realized how much I appreciated high school, and found extreme comfort in it.  It is difficult to think of finding this comfort elsewhere.

We will have to see what New York has for Me.

Touching Fire

Britta Akerley

I am drawn to its brilliant light.

The heat wraps around me, it sends me chills

The invitation is difficult to resist.

The warmth engulfs my body,

And comforts my soul.

As I close a gap between us,

the comfort spreads through each limb

The feeling intensifies

The heat is ferocious

It burns, I feel pain.

But am I the  one to blame?

I should know that fire is unpredictable.

So why is fire so irresistible?

 

The three confessional poets that made an impression on me with this project were Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Sexton.  They each told told a lot of their personal lives, and inner emotions through their poetry.  I also noticed how they used illusions, and wrote about past figures, or well-known people.  They used circumstances and different actions to illustrate exactly how they felt.   I tried to use this idea, and illustrate an emotion that I feel, using fire as a metaphor.  I also tried to stay within the guidelines of a conceit poem, because their is more to confessional poetry than the "confession," and the form is very important. 

Words

By Anne Sexton

 

Be careful of words,

even the miraculous ones.

For the miraculous we do our best,

sometimes they swarm like insects

and leave not a sting but a kiss.

They can be as good as fingers.

They can be as trusty as the rock

you stick your bottom on.

But they can be both daisies and bruises.

Yet I am in love with words.

They are doves falling out of the ceiling.

They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.

They are the trees, the legs of summer,

and the sun, its passionate face.

Yet often they fail me.

I have so much I want to say,

so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.

But the words aren't good enough,

the wrong ones kiss me.

Sometimes I fly like an eagle

but with the wings of a wren.

But I try to take care

and be gentle to them.

Words and eggs must be handled with care.

Once broken they are impossible

things to repair.

 

The poem Words, by Anne Sexton may be interpreted in many ways.   In this poem, and in many of Sexton’s works, she uses a metaphor to illustrate what she wishes to say.   My take on the poem is that she is actually talking about the relationship between her parents and her.  In the line, "words and eggs must be handled with care, once broken they are impossible to repair," I think Sexton is talking about her parents as "words."  The egg, in this case would be her, as she would be the offspring of her parents.  Eggs also seem to symbolize innocence and fragility.  I researched her life, to understand her a bit better, and discovered that she actually had a somewhat abusive home life.  Her parents often mistreated her, but at the same time they expressed love for her. 

The idea of confessional poetry is to really get an idea of what is inside the poet's head.  This poem, really shows an inner turmoil or confusion.  Sexton's use of words illustrated such a confusion of how she actually feels about the subject.  She explains "I am in love with words," and "They are the trees, the legs of summer, and the sun, its passionate face,"  but that "they often fail me."  Anne Sexton is explaining how much she loves the subject, and how there are many great aspects of it, but that it is not perfect.  Sexton also clarifies that she tries to take care of words, but they are fragile.  The clues of this poem made me to believe that this poem is about her home life, and the fragile relationship she had with her parents.  She felt it to be her fault, when things were not going well, and she loved her parents despite the mixed signals and mistreatment.  

Reflection

After reading dozens of confessional poems, I feel that I have truly grasped the essence of this art.  Since these poems are direct insights into the poets’ lives, it believe I am more in touch with their intentions.  Feeling such closeness to an artist allows you to appreciate their work at a far greater extent.  For example, when reading "Words" I truly connected with Anne Sexton’s emotions at the time she wrote it.  

Having found a hypersensitivity to poets’ emotions has also helped me become aware of their treatment of language.  It is now clear for me to see slight variations in diction, syntax, and more specific poetic tools such as line breaks, and how these choices can affect the overall meaning of the poem.

Imagery, simile and metaphors were fairly common in the confessional poetry that I read.  I read many poems that had a deeper meaning than what was directly said.  I really enjoyed Anne Sexton's metaphors, and deciphering the meaning behind what she was actually saying.  

The Poems I read are:

-“Words” by Anne Sexton

-“Searching,” by Robert Lowell

-“Daddy,” by Sylvia Plath

-“All My Pretty Ones,” by Anne Sexton

-“The Starry Night,” by Anne Sexton

-“Lady Lazarus,” by Sylvia Plath

-“Sleep in the Mojave Desert,” by Sylvia Plath

-“Mr. Edwards and the Spider,” by Robert Lowell

-“Wanting to Die,” by Anne Sexton

-“The Moss of His Skin,” by Anne Sexton

-“Dream Song 1,” by John Berryman

-and “Central Park, by Robert Lowell

Post Secret

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

For my art, I chose something a little different.  The blog posted above is a blog of confessions.  People send postcards to postsecret, with something they wish to share, without revealing their identity.  Postsecret has also made books from from the content of the blogs, and there are postsecret exhibitions in various museums.   The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York and Hillier Art Space  in Washington DC are currently hosting PostSecret art exhibitions.

These pieces of art capture the essence of the confessional movement, through personal art.   These postcards reveal insight into the lives of each artist.   Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton are responsible for countless poems where they shared intimate details about their personal lives, much like the postcards that are posted on the site.  Because the site is anonymous, the poets mask their identities much like the earlier confessional poets hid behind masks.  The nature of these poems have a vast range of emotions.  For the artists to reveal their innermost feelings, emotions and secrets,  is tremendously therapeutic.  

The pictures under the label post secret are examples of postcards found on postsecret.  The picture concerning a father-child relationship is very similar to the subject of some of Plath's and Sexton's poems.  These two poets were inspired by their homelives and wrote of disconcerting relationships with their fathers.  For example Sylvia Plath's poem, "Daddy."