Sometimes people write poetry about very personal topics. The hardest one for me to write about is: (Choose one.)
Sex (40%, 20 Votes)
Difficult family relationships (22%, 11 Votes)
Abuse or violence (12%, 6 Votes)
Marriage or dating (10%, 5 Votes)
I write about these things but don’t let anyone else read them; they’re private (8%, 4 Votes)
I don’t write about these things; they’re private (4%, 2 Votes)
Mental wellbeing or illness (2%, 1 Votes)
Doubt or fear (2%, 1 Votes)
My body (0%, 0 Votes)
Physical wellbeing or illness (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 50

Definitely some things to think about.

i’m off to check out all of your recommendations …

I have a hard time writing about several of these topics (abuse, death, sex) but also have a hard time *not* writing about them.

I know I’ve read a lot of poems that deal with these subjects well, but there are two that immediately came to mind:

On difficult family relationships, Mary Oliver has a great poem about the flowers that helped her face the difficulties at home when she was a child (or the narrator was). I cannot remember the name of the specific flower (or thus, the poem)… it’s from “Why I Wake Early.” Anyone know what I’m talking about??

On depression/suicide/death, Jim Brock has a great piece called “To the coroner who did not have to draw my blood.” It’s really, really amazing.

I think immediately not of a poem but political essays by Steve Almond in his book (Not That You Asked). “Politics” wasn’t on your list, and I know there are many political publications and blogs, but for those of us who write about the ordinary and familiar, politics can be a challenging topic.

Here is the link to Steve Almonds website, and it has some examples of his humorous essays: http://www.stevenalmond.com/content.php?page=ntya&n=2&f=2.

Don’t let his humor trick you into thinking that his writing is not politically charged and hard-hitting. It is all of the above. I love it; it supports my political leanings, but more than that, as a writer I appreciate and admire the risks he takes.

p.s., I just added readwritepoem to our links under our category Lynx. I don’t know what took me so long. It’s such a great site!

Like Donald did.

I heard a noted physician say that there are three things the human mind requires to be healthy: sleep, food, and sex. Odd isn’t it that as sentient creatures we often deprive our physical and mental well being of one or two of those needs. When thus deprived the mind and body indulges in over compensation for the missing need. I ponder, could it be said that deprivation of one of those three important mind needs is the pivot point of all the worlds troubles? Just an observation to titillate your poetic musings.

Here are some works to grind up in your mental latte.

1. Sleep: ‘To Sleep’ by John Keats.

2.Food: ‘The Clean Plater’ by Ogden Nash.

3. Sex: ‘A Woman Waits for Me’ by Walt Whitman.

Ginsberg is beginning to ‘Howl’ in the back of my poetic mail room. But then if I linked his poem here (…thoughtful proverbial pregnant pause…) oh what the heck? Alright, Allen! Sum up all those life instances Carolee noted for the prompt. ‘Howl’ by Allen Ginsberg. This is not for the squeamish or faint hearted poet.

Sometimes I find there are issues that I feel a bit reluctant to address, but when I notice the reluctance I try to take it as a sign that I need to push through the resistance to write about that subject, because it often produces the most interesting writing.

I am learning to trust that the subjects that are closest to my heart, and express something deeply personal, will be most valuable and appreciated by others, because I’m sharing a bit of myself, writing deeply rather than brilliantly.

One of the most interesting sources of reluctance I experience at the moment is not wanting to write about my last relationship because I feel I should be “over it” by now rather than still “obsessing”. But in fact I find writing about what I feel and have felt is a necessary part of healing and moving on, and I have agreed with myself that I will keep writing about that relationship any time I want to until it comes to a natural end – it’s definitely slowing down now.

More generally, I find writing practices (see http://www.redravine.wordpress.com for some great examples) are great because just writing uncritically about a random topic often leaves open a space where whatever I wanted to write can come out – so I often find myself writing about what I was reluctant to write about, and not being able to stop or censor it because that’s the rule with WPs!

I would also add that one of the things I try to do with my writing is find the bright light at the end of the tunnel as well as capturing the darkness of the the tunnel itself; – for me this is an important part of ensuring that writing about difficult issues is healing for me and for others.