I was at a reading Tuesday, this week and someone told me that my poems that she heard, this night, seemed to have more of a quality of reaching out beyond personal experiences or something to that effect. Granted, she has not been able to read or hear many poems by me. What was ironic was that the poems that I read, which she said had this quality of reaching out to others, were about very personal experiences. I had two poems about shyness. One was about being ignored or the way shy guys seem to be misunderstood – we probably seem like we aren’t interested in others, or we are rude or that we just don’t want to talk, even when that is the farthest from the truth. The other one was about feeling invisible, unnoticed.

It is really embarrassing to be so shy. It’s also true that shyness is about being embarrassed a great deal. I should write more about this.

I also shared my poem entitled, “A Question for Anne” – for Anne Sexton. I state that I understand what she meant when she wrote “To Bedlam and Part Way Back.” I was always fascinated by her story and enjoyed helping others in my work in the psychiatric/mental health field. I think it is fascinating to understand another person and their pain, suffering – well, I mean in my career it was fascinating how we could help people when you could really empathize and understand in that way. It’s too bad for Anne that the healing power of poetry was not enough.
Here’s the poem again, slightly revised just this past week:

A Question For Anne

I know what she meant
when Anne Sexton wrote,
“To Bedlam and Part
Way Back.”
Yet that’s where our stories
diverge. She never made it
all the way back.

While she found the healing power
of poetry,
in her life,
like her contemporary,
Sylvia Plath,
she took her own life.

So, I want to ask you,
Anne,
in that next life
have you finished
your awful rowing
toward God?
Are you there, now?

By Bruce Whealton
November 18, 2009