My ex always said he could compartmentalize his thoughts. This allowed him to set aside external stresses and go about his day. It allowed him to simply close his eyes and sleep at night within seconds. Another man recently expressed this to me, as well, in reference to his own daily stresses and trauma.
I used to think it was just a way to excuse not showing concern for others or not considering my feelings in conflicts, but I imagine it is a real coping mechanism. Some people can just shut off parts of their life or mind and focus on the less emotionally demanding tasks at hand.
I can’t. I have a mind that is the opposite of compartmented. If something gets in there—if something worries me, hurts me, or even brings me great joy—it saturates everything I think and do. I will think about that concern, hurt, or joy throughout my day, whether it be personal, political, or spiritual. As I wash dishes, fold laundry, walk the dog, work, and attempt to sleep: every task is bathed in a soup of “but what about this thing that is pressing on or filling my spirit?”
I don’t know if this is the bane of the writer or if this is what makes writers, painters, etc., turn to their craft in the first place. I only know that, try as I might, I can’t set aside these thoughts. They turn into words. For some writers, these thoughts turn into voices or characters. Lately, they have spilled onto the page or screen as poems in a vain (both meanings) effort to rid the mush that is my brain of these racing, raging, craving thoughts.
Poetry thus has become a highly selfish exercise for me. I might spend days honing a single poem of a few lines, not because I care what others think, but because it must express exactly what I am trying to communicate. I don’t care if you understand what I have written. I care that what I have written completely expresses the bath of hot confusion in which my brain is swimming.
If I write:
“This love is—lacuna”
I didn’t write “this love is an empty space” because I don’t mean it is an empty space.
I meant, “this love is an empty space, a hole in my bones, holes in my every tissue.” Lacuna.
If someone has to look up “lacuna,” I don’t care.
If they don’t want to look it up, I don’t care.
I am not writing my poetry to please others. I am not writing my poetry to make the world a safer place for readers of poetry. If I’m lucky enough to reach anyone, that’s lovely, but that’s not my goal.
I am writing my poetry because I have no lacunae in my brain. I have no spaces or compartments to stash how I feel about someone or something. I can’t simply lock those things away and go on with my day. The closest I come to that is when I’ve had a couple of beers and, even then, it’s all I can do not to crawl inside myself and think of the thing that is in there, whatever that thing may be.
I sometimes envy the two men mentioned above and anyone else who puts the events of their lives in neat, little boxes while they function seemingly normally.
I often wonder what will happen if all their neat boxes suddenly break open.
Last Updated on September 28, 2023 by Lee Ellis
Sometimes I long to have those neat boxes. No doubt, I believe there was a time I enjoyed those tidy boxes. They broke open & it is doubtful the lids will ever cover the surfaces again. Wading through the contents feels like quicksand. I hear you. I see you.
I am sorry. Wading through quicksand: yes. It’s overwhelming at times. Especially right now.
Most of my loved ones are like me. Life weighs on them.