ME TOO: A POETIC TIMELINE

My latest book, Me Too: A Poetic Timeline, is unlike any of the previous four I have written and published.

This manuscript also differs from my others in that I have never been so full of fear but also so proud of anything I’ve ever composed. And if I never write another printed work, Me Too: A Poetic Timeline will be the perfect ending to an imperfect life.

Along my journey, I’ve learned surviving is challenging and messy, and I will forever be a work in progress, and that’s okay.

Someone once told me that fear only goes away when you do the thing you’re most afraid of, so here it is. You could say I turned my fear into purpose.

My poems are triggering and darker than dark, although I make no apologies. As I pieced my past writings together, I worried that I could not achieve the cathartic transformation I so desperately sought without rainbows and unicorns.

By the time I completed the collection, I was at peace, knowing that sometimes, the unspeakable, the ugly, and the disastrous can outshine the glory, the splendor, and the sunlight.

A legion of fearless women have given me the strength to create a better tomorrow for myself: Anita Hill, Maya Angelou, Kesha, Brooke Shields, Lady Gaga, Christine Blasey-Ford, Kat O’Brien, Jennifer Fox, E. Jean Carroll, Rose McGowan, Taylor Swift, Laurie Halse Anderson, Stephanie Clifford, and countless others.

But it was Hadley Duvall who gave me the courage to share my darkest writings with anyone who dares to read through them. She doesn’t know it, but sweet, beautiful Hadley is and will forever be my hero and one of the reasons why this book exists.

I wrote Me Too: A Poetic Timeline for two reasons—each as important as the other.

• To finally release my pain and hopefully find some peace—piece by broken piece.
• To help other survivors feel less alone.

If my poetry can comfort and heal just one survivor, my fear and anxiety about publishing and promoting my book, Me Too: A Poetic Timeline, will have been well worth it.

Gathering and sharing my collection of poems has also helped me heal, and although it was akin to removing a mere pebble from a vast ocean of repressed trauma, I’ll take it.

Perhaps this book of poetry is my swan song, or maybe not.

But maybe, just maybe, it marks day one of the rest of a new, free life.