10 poems i didn’t want to write

Life dragged me into being a writer.

As a child, I always had my nose in a book. Language and writing became my strong suits, and eventually led to a career in public relations and corporate communications. I churned out feature stories, news releases, backgrounders, speeches and marketing material.

When my then-husband and I moved to Abu Dhabi in 1993, I composed long newsletters full of adventure to amuse friends and family back home. That was before the Internet and blogging. A few years ago, I posted some of those letters online. In 1995, I ghost wrote an autobiography for a prominent United Arab Emirates businessman. It’s been translated into a dozen languages and sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide. In 2008, I launched AmazingWomenRock.com with my first blog post “Like a Virgin;” scores of blog posts, online articles, and tweets followed. But I didn’t attempt poetry until the winter of 2013. It has since become a channel through which I express my joy, sorrow, delight, frustration, and anger,.

Some say the pen is mightier than the sword. I don’t know if that’s true or not. What I do know is writing poetry has stopped me from exploding. The process has acted like a pressure valve, particularly over the last several months. In many ways I wish I had never felt the need to write these poems; they are born from deep and overwhelming emotions I ofttimes would rather not feel. Nevertheless, I take this opportunity to share a selection of some of the heartfelt pieces I’ve written.

Each is intimately connected in some way to my Alzheimer’s story.

1) life breaks my heart (June 2013)

2) dead to the world (February 2014)

3) hearts in jars (February 2015)

4) the sun, the moon and the star (March 2015)

5)  hickory dickory mockery (April 2015)

6) hopscotch & double dutch (July 25, 2015)

7) torn corners & confetti (July 31, 2015)

8)  a nurse her re rhyme (November 20, 2015)

9)  quarantine (November 28, 2015)

10)  mary had a little blog (December 12, 2015)

© Susan Macaulay 2013 – 2016. I invite you to share the links widely, but please do not reprint or reblog or copy and paste my poems into other social media without my permission. Thank you.

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