Dear Someone
A Poem for Expressing Yourself
This fill-in-the-blanks poetry can help you express how you feel about the people in your life, both positively and negatively.
We've all wanted to tell a boss, teacher, neighbor, doctor, parent, child, or friend something important that is difficult to express. Many times we wait—wisely—until we have the words "just right." Often we only need half an hour to gather our thoughts effectively. Other times it may be weeks or months before we can carefully pull out the words that convey our feelings without destroying the relationship in the process.
If we're lucky, or wait long enough, the situation may resolve itself. More often it does not. We are sure that we have to say something. But what? How can we acknowledge our egos and emotions without allowing them to take over? How can we get past our frustration?
Fortunately, there is a vehicle to facilitate that process. It is call poetry.
Using the Dear Someone Poem form, you can send yourself a poem that will appear in your e-mail inbox. This will be YOUR personal, private, confidential poem by yourself to yourself. We assure you that we will NOT keep a copy or read what you write. We will NOT disclose your address to anyone else. When you submit your e-mail to YOURSELF, as soon as you click "Send this poem to me," it is speeded on its way only to your personal inbox.
In this fill-in-the-blanks form, Alysa Cummings gives you a wonderful structure for a poem to imagine what you want to say to another person when you next meet him or her. It may be that after you've put your ideas down on paper (or typed them into the computer) you can actually share that poem with the person. Or it may be that simply writing your thoughts in this way can point toward a response you may not have considered before. Yet again, you may find that after expressing what you want to say through this particular medium—even though you don't share it with someone or discover the perfect words that could change the situation—you release some of the tension you previously felt.
Alysa is a good teacher for this type of poetry because she has used it in dealing with her experience of being a cancer patient. Also, she's taught this approach to others in a support group she facilitates. After you've read the following examples, perhaps you might want to use a form at the bottom of the page to share your thoughts with someone in your own life.
Dear Doctor
Dear Doctor
I would like to tell you
How angry I am
You tell me
"We'll take it one step at a time."
You tell me
"Be patient. Be a good sport."
You tell me
"We'll fix it all on the table."
I would like to tell you
There's no trust left; it's all gone now
So during our next appointment
With you standing there dressed
And me mostly naked, shivery in a paper gown
You'll ask me how I'm doing
I'll tell you straight, Doc, just fine
Doc, thanks for asking.
—Alysa Cummings
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