Ode To My Anger

Poetry Fridays

Several gatherings ago, at The Coffee & Stories Society, we explored the emotion of anger, an emotion often perceived as negative. Whenever we feel the magmatic emotion of rage bubbling up and rising from within us, we naturally take a deep cooling breath and exhale the anger out our flared up nostrils in a locomotive steam. It is an exquisite organic attempt by our system not to be overpowered by this emotion, for the sake of keeping the peace.

Although taking conscious breaths do help to reduce the intensity of any destabilizing emotion, as anger can be, the reality is that we rarely breathe consciously when we are engulfed by it. These unconscious deep breaths are often the result of an energy build up desperately trying to find an outlet to be released and for our system to be decompressed.

For some of us, not wanting to feel angry, or feeling ashamed for feeling angry, we suppress our anger. For others, we allow anger to overtake us from a lack of awareness as to how much the emotion is controlling the moment. In all of this, we fail to give it a seat at the table for it to be heard, observed, and transmuted to a more beneficial outcome. We fail to acknowledge that anger occurs in all of us naturally and that anger is a powerful agent for change when channeled correctly. Its raw healing power, when transformed instead of suppressed, is untapped for the most part.

Raging on the page

There are many conscious tools and practices to help move negative emotions like anger out of our system. Among those, one of my favorite ones is journaling, as it helps me dig deeper for the root cause of an emotion like rage. Anger, after all, is a self-defense mechanism. It is an emotion that comes to the surface when we feel vulnerable, so exploring it can help shed light to the more difficult to deal stuff that’s hiding underneath it.

Introspective writing is marvelous for understanding ourselves better, what triggers us, what makes us feel the most alive. It helps us delineate our boundaries, so that we can continue doing more of the good stuff, feel more aligned, and more connected to our core Self.

Transmuting on the page through Poetry

Poetry also heals.

At The Coffee & Stories Society gathering, I had asked the Poetic Warriors, the participants who had attended, to own their anger by welcoming it at their table and offering a seat. Shifting the perception of it by understanding that it is an emotion equally deserving of our gratitude, love, and compassion.

I asked them to write an ode to their anger.

For this Poetry Friday, I leave you with one of the transmuting results of that gathering, a lyric poem by Poetic Warrior Solana Corradi addressing her anger in a welcoming and elevating manner that made my Spirit feel lighter as I read it.

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“Ode To My Anger”

by Solana Corradi, Poet, Teacher, Warrior

My dearest Anger,

you come to me with all your glory

although I hesitate your stay,

I welcome your bravery…

I see why you visit in the brightest of hours

as you cover what needs to be dimmed just for a moment..

I understand the beauty of your intentions.

consumed by the words that take up space in my head

while staring at the blank pages before me

wondering why you blow more breath into the fire..

to keep it sacred perhaps?

I try to sleep face down on the uncut grass

knowing the time to harvest has come..

my memories deceive me and hide

like the moths that feast in the dark

there lies a truth that only the trees and I know..

because the truth about you is healing

and the fear that you spawn is humbling.

You have spoken.

So come.

Come and forage.

I can hear the trees that have lived

longer than this Constitution..

or the mayfly that will die

without seeing the sun rise for a second time..

Either way, it’s all the same.

Just come.

Come and sit with me by the fire

as we take communion from the beast.

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PS. Dare to write an ode to your anger to alchemize its raw power. Or, type her poem, poetic line-by poetic line-exactly as it is, while listening Mozart’s Requiem: K. 626: Lacrimosa. Whoa! I did it for this post, and I felt I was in sacred communion with my very own beautiful, sacred beast…

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