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""Misery loves to be understood""
My former girlfriend's poetry book. Can I be objective about it? Of course not. Nevertheless. If poetry is supposed to make you feel something (besides confused), then this collection succeeds. Many of these 60 short poems were written when she was depressed, and that state of mind comes through clearly. In fact, these poems contain some of the best, most nuanced descriptions of depression that I've ever read. "Nothingness," for example, perfectly captures the bleakness and flatness; not only "No hope" and "No concern," but also "No despair" and even "No apathy." Just nothing. Anne Marie points out many of the complex paradoxes of depression. The poem... More > "Crying," which is actually about not crying, adds an insightful twist at the end; the poet is thinking that death would be a wonderful release, but "I don't even have the strength/To let go." "Pain" describes the stage in which pain becomes a comfort that keeps you going, and "Nostalgia" looks at the hidden upside of a lousy childhood compared to an uncertain adulthood ("It hurt but it was a certainty/I was always where I didn't want to be").
Although most of the poems are in this vein, there are bursts of humor (all the more startling in contrast to the surrounding gloom). And especially in the last third of the book, a number of poems sound a note of hope, exulting in the joys of escaping (but only temporarily) via love, music, dance, the Sun, or the night. The collection ends with a guide to life that is the complete opposite of the "Dance like no one is watching" cliché. Besides the psychological insights and honesty, my favorite aspects of the poems are the sly turns of phrase ("My heart is wrapped in rubber") and surprise endings ("Oh, Love let us love/But/Never multiply"). Painful to read, but many of us will be pleased to see these feelings artfully described by someone who's known them well. < Less