This is the second book of poetry by E. Lynn Alexander, from Collapse Press. In
Find Me in the Iris,
she continues to explore the themes of
The Shouldspeak Disease
on the language of shame and internalized expectations, conditioning, regulating norms and binaries as increasingly toxic. Exploring the natural, mystical, and spiritual can be restorative acts of reclaiming, connecting us to silenced generations, ancestral psyche.
We are increasingly self centered, hierarchal, prone to immediate and empty gratification, consumption, competition, exhibitionism. To commune and cooperate is to be "weak", to share knowledge is to lose "advantage". Where shame is the tool, coerced participation is the result. The desire to diminish and destroy pushes us to channel our energies defensively and we are often depleted.