Lately I’ve been writing and creating so much around the darker shades of love and lust. This is mostly because it’s been fun! Love is such a microcosm of our own inner worlds; the perfect little summation of our tapestry of experience in life. I believe everything that matters in the human condition is born of love. I’ve spent a lot of time writing about the halcyon aspects of love and the inevitable cycle of loss that comes with them. I haven’t spent a lot of time writing about when love twists in on itself, when the blood from our wounds gets into the water of our life. Being able to have conversations on the podcast about stickier fantasies and where they are coming from has brought me close to some wonderful people. It’s also illuminated how much intimacy can be found in sharing the corners of our inner life that we feel should be permanently shadowed. Love is wondrous but it is also a messy, tangled web at times. It’s been very freeing to discover just how much beauty is in that mess lately.
What I want both in my writing and my relating, are not only the blessings but the hauntings, because they are real and human whether we like it or not. I don’t wish to encourage anyone to chase that which they know harms them but I do hope to hold space for people to love themselves and others as the complete masterpiece they are: highlights and shadows included. Life will bring every single one of us stormy affairs and dangerous liaisons. Isn’t it better to move through them together rather than alone?
So with all that being said, I’m coming out with a new book soon! How to Cure a Lonely Heart: A Poetic Manual for Falling in Love is an interactive book of poems, art, activities, and essays. I hope it can live up to its incredibly long title’s mandate: bringing people closer to themselves and others in love. Here are a couple of pages to try out in a journal or with another person if you’re curious. Each poem is paired with a question meant to spark an intimate conversation about who you are. Just like our own emotions, these questions are as amorphous and open ended as you need them to be. The only correct answers is your honesty.
And if you like these poems, my first book of poems and essays can be found here.
Love you; mean it,
Vic
Beautiful poems, Violet--thank you for sharing. And what exciting about the new book, congratulations! ✨