the princess saves herself in this one by Amanda Lovelace

Poetry.

Not a fan.

I'm not sure how I failed to see this as poetry when I bought this book. But the title seemed so intriguing. And the back cover says it's "the story of a princess turned damsel turned queen." Maybe it won't be so bad.

Truth is, I kind of go through phases. I guess that's nothing earth shattering. There are times when everything seems to go my way. I make plans, I have fun. This can go for months. Then something happens. Reality sets in. I realize I've just been fooling myself. Things aren't great. Things seem shittier than ever. All those plans fall to pieces and the fun turns to bitter regrets. I tend to retreat during these times, into books, TV, movies, daydreams, anything that can convince me that life isn't the giant heap of festering feces that it seems when I'm not doing any of those things. It's hard to pull back out. It's hard to want to pull back out, because I know the crash is inevitably on the other side.

So this year I am trying to find little ways of inspiring myself when the rabbit hole looms large. Oddly, Twitter has presented some interesting options. I've found some wonderful people on there. They send positive tweets out into the world, and although they may not be intended for me, I intercept them and take them to heart just the same. I'm trying to do the same thing, tweeting positivity in between the silliness and nerdiness (which, I'll be honest, is pretty much my whole twitter feed).

That's why the title grabbed my attention, and, poetry aversion aside, it doesn't disappoint. Through the poems here, the author tells how she endured abuses as a child (the princess) and hoped to find a rescuer through later relationships (the damsel). She eventually discovers that sometimes the only effective rescuer is yourself (the queen).

The poems are mostly short, maybe a sentence or two. They aren't packed with metaphor or allegory or anything that seems to make other poetry so pretentious and tedious to read. It's straightforward and to the point, which is absolutely vital in this case. In order to reach the people who need to hear this message most, she refrains from pomposity and just talks to you, albeit in a poetical form. She becomes approachable, relatable, and suddenly you see you aren't alone and if there was a light at the end of her tunnel there can be one at the end of yours too, no matter how complete the darkness may seem right now.

It's a book that needs to be out there, in the hands of more people. It's not Shakespeare, but its message is one that needs to be heard by so many, whether they like poetry or not.