Dear Therapist: It’s A Poem Kind of Day, Don’t You Think?

Sometimes someone else’s poem expresses your thoughts and feelings better than you.

– by Talkspace User 

Over the course of the last few months, I’ve shared many of my thoughts, feelings, and experiences with all of you. I sincerely hope you’ve found at least some of that information useful, entertaining, or relatable. And though I try to relay to you what’s on my mind and in my heart in my own words, what you are about to read is not written by me, even if the text perfectly conveys what I’ve been feeling.

This week, I am relying on Emily Dickenson’s, The Lost Thought, to sum up my emotions.

The Lost Thought

I felt a cleaving in my mind

As if my brain had split;

I tried to match it seam by seam,

But could not make it fit.

The thought behind I strove to join

Unto the thought before,

But sequence raveled out of reach

Like balls upon a floor.

Because I could’t remember this poem by heart, I had to do the reasonable thing and Google the bits and pieces I managed to recall. In the process, I came across another poem that resonates with me. It’s also one of Dickenson’s works and it’s called, Hope.

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune–without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

I believe that a well-written poem can easily capture the complexity of someone’s emotional and mental state, independent of the poem’s simplicity –  at least in this instance, it worked out perfectly.

Dear Therapist is an ongoing series of articles. Check out the other posts here!

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