Confessional Poetry

What can one say about the ever-present I? Confessional poetry draws directly from personal experience—our feelings, emotions, fears, loves, and hatred.

Perhaps it sounds selfish to always experience the "me" of everything. After all, we're often told the ego needs to be tamed. But what other perspective do we have? We can't step outside of ourselves to experience life as someone else—only through our own perspectives and perceptions of what we think their experience might be.

So, the I is always at the forefront.

An artist paints from I. A dancer expresses from I. A musician plays from I. Life crashes into us like a wave spilling onto a rocky shore. Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it lifts and carries us. At times it overwhelms us, and we just want the I to depart on an ebb tide. We want to be numb. We don't wish to be at all. 

The I often grows scared—too fearful to face its own fear. Stuck in a vortex, overwhelmed with worry, we succumb to stress. The confessor drowning in their own confessions.

Yet, the I is stubborn. Resistant to being swayed. Angry when someone tries to mold it. So the I is a powerful, unique presence. With billions of I's inhabiting this planet, that's a lot of poetry.