Anne Sexton never won the immediate battle, but she boldly transmuted her suffering into poetry that will last for many generations and will help many deal creatively with their dark nights.
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Poetry is sea-language; it keeps you in the water of your life as you articulate your experience.
You need dialogue so that you can work out a livable connection with this challenging but ultimately creative power.
Later these [tears and rage] turn into exquisite stories and subtle feelings. Her language changes as she gains insight. Depth of perception often leads to beauty of expression.
Mary Shelley offers an extraordinary model for responding to a world out of control and the resulting discouragement. At the turning-point in her life she wrote in her diary, “I must change.” And she did. The change didn’t come about automatically or at will. She had to work hard at making a life of her own, crafting a presence in the world and a sense of her own character and destiny.
She separated herself from life so that she could finally heal her soul. We have seen this theme over and over, how the dark night is fulfilled in some form of withdrawal from active life.