Answers for "Hydras from My Psyche"
What is the significance of this work for you?
Even though retired from practicing as a psychologist, I have continued to explore my own choices and behaviors and their origins. This piece was a further exploration of the persisting behaviors and decisions I still seem to exhibit in one form or another.
What is the significance of the form you chose for this work?
Creative nonfiction writing seemed perfect for exploring actual occurrences, urging me to remember details and immediate reactions. The actual writing was a bit harrowing reliving some of the pictures and feelings that bubbled up into my memory. Writing creative nonfiction is like a mini exorcism for me, and is sometimes like a Rorschach reading of where my mind and heart might be dwelling no matter the reality that is or was before me.
What was your process for creating this work?
I started with a current and pressing question that I needed to answer (why do I so quickly run to the vet with my dog for no real damage that the vet can deem treatment-worthy?). I harked back to how illness played a part in my own life and wondered if I had become my mother. After a general outline I wrote the stories straight as I recalled them, and then, over days, added the extra details that utilized the senses. I noticed other themes like food in my piece and then developed them more fully.
Answers for "I had to laugh"
What is the significance of this work for you?
The inspiration for my poem is a news clip of an eighteen-year-old boy who was tried as an adult under Alabama’s accomplice liability law and was sentenced to 65 years in prison after rejecting an earlier plea deal that recommended 25 years.
He was convicted of felony murder, burglary and theft for helping in the break-ins of two homes two years before. He was part of a group of five accused in the thefts. Another boy in the group, was shot and killed by the police because that boy attempted to fire at the police. This eighteen-year-old boy bore the guilt for his friend’s death.
At the delivery of the verdict, the boy laughed. The reporter registered his astonishment and condemnation of the boy for laughing. My poem is a response to the reporter.
My identification with the boy perhaps comes from feeling guilty by proxy from both sides, being in this world, this country, this era, this body, this psychological makeup, etc.
What is the significance of the form you chose for this work?
Short, sharp phrases were what came out of me. This format was a stripped down and stark response to an abhorrent reality. Poems were made for this kind of expression.
What was your process for creating this work?
After reading the news clip I just automatically started to picture the boy and his feelings in that moment and what he might have said. The first words spewed out of me and the poem was formed. After showing it to someone, I was made aware of Marge Piercy’s poem, "A Just Anger," since my poem seemed to have some resemblance to her poem. I then set about to use her poem as a format to tweak my own.
Joy Alexander is a licensed Psychologist and Professor Emeritus from Indiana University South Bend, and is a novice writer living in Tucson Arizona.