Taylor Swift used these words to describe why she wrote the songs on her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. Mostly about relationships gone bad, her pain was real and her life was undone. She said she HAD to write it.
The imagery she uses throughout her songs is haunting. “My spine split from carrying us up the hill.” After writing heart wrenching songs to describe what she went through, she declared her tears holy as she released it. And then, by her own testimony, she was free of it.
We all have that same power. As we get older, our breakup stories have become distant memories, but we all have a measure of current pain. Time after time, I turned to words on paper when struggling. Those words, that so often helped me get through, didn’t exist before I dug in and pulled them out.
A couple years ago, I went to therapy to get past some things that were hard. I wasn’t so much looking for advice as I was needing to flesh out what I was wrestling with. Speaking the words helped. If we don’t find words to express our pain, I think it just stays inside. We might be able to ignore it and push it deep, but it doesn’t get released. Sometimes therapy can help us get that done.
Here’s the thing. Sometimes we need words for our “sad stories.” We could be facing a serious problem or just finding ourselves with something we can’t get past. Poetry, stories, talks with friends, journal scribblings, therapy, and prayer…they all help us put words to what we are going through. They all provide opportunity to get “ink on the page,” and give shape to what we’re experiencing. It helps our tears become holy.
And fortunately for us, we don’t have to release our words to millions of people as part of our healing. We can sit all alone in front of a piece of paper, no one ever seeing or hearing it. Public or private, sometimes we just “HAVE to write it.”
Grateful to the poets who put words to what they go through, so we can learn from principles that apply to all of us. Thank you Taylor for sharing your pain…your poetry is brilliant.
Wide Angle Lens 