Friday, May 20, 2011

POETIC GENIUS - SUICIDE - HUNGRY GHOSTS



My own obsessive thoughts, self centered musings, and tendencies to view the world
through the limitations of my screen of associations, made this offering from one of the blogs I follow,
an apt reminder.  I am not the genius that this poet, and many others are, but I retain a certain balance,
plain ordinariness, and self acceptance by compassionate necessity.
Though I've not escaped my ego, I practice a rough version of enlightened self-interest,
enough to keep the demons leashed, 


Anne Sexton's hungry ghosts never left her side.
They informed her work, and ate her alive.
They even compelled her to write the last words of her life to her daughter
before ending it.
She was 46 years old.



Anne Sexton 
1928-1974

 "In recent days, the release of Diane Wood Middlebrook's biography of Anne Sexton's life 
 http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Sexton-Biography-Diane-Middlebrook/dp/0679741828
  has caused controversy in the circles of certain groups of psychiatrists and moralists.

The controversy centers around Middlebrook's decision to include within her biography, excerpts from tapes
recorded during Anne's therapy sessions.
The tapes were released to Middlebrook under the strict permission of Anne's daughter, Linda Gray Sexton
who authorized Middlebrook
to utilize all resourcesthat she had
in order to construct a thorough biography of Anne's life.  

Though the controversy is real to many,
the question of doctor-patient confidentiality
has done little to hurt the success of the biography
in the eyes of the general public".





ANN SEXTON WEBSITE 



"I am, each day,
typing out the God my typewriter believes in.
Very quick. Very intense,
like a wolf at a live heart."
Ann Sexton

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