Weight Loss and Poetry


Some of you may be familiar with the popular and wonderful lifestyle website, www.sparkpeople.com.

If you're not, it's basically this amazing free website (this is not a paid ad by the way, it's my personal opinion) that helps people lose weight and get healthy. Some people use it to gain weight if that's what it takes to get healthy. They have millions of members now.

My twin sister and I both joined about 3 years ago, and we've had great success keeping our weight in a healthy range and exercising. We even got to appear briefly (about half a second) on Entertainment tonight as a success story. http://www.etonline.com/news/2009/07/76746/index.html

Anyway, what this all has to do with this blog is that I have been toying with writing some weight loss poetry. I have never seen a poetry magazine that published weight loss poetry, but maybe I haven't looked hard enough.

I think weight problems are something that the majority of people in the United States will deal with sooner or later, whether it's people with severe obesity, eating disorders like anorexia or bolemia, or just people who are wondering how 25 extra pounds somehow glommed onto their bodies.

So here are a few poems on weight loss topics like finally seeing some stomach muscles, insecurity around slender young things, and body dysmorphia (believing you are much fatter or skinnier than you are).

The Ablets
The ablets now, they doth peek out

from 'neath a fleshy slab.

Will they sink beneath the mire,

or turn to rock hard abs?


Idolatry

Skinny. Skinny. Skinny.

We present these offerings: Hunger, Self-Hatred, Shame.

We leave them on the altar of the bathroom scale.

Please bless us, O god of the Thin.


Beautiful Bones

Beautiful bones, lovely bones,

Jutting from your skin.

I know it seems that jutting bones become a way to win.

Chicken legs, scrawny legs, impossibly thin,

Every young girl wants skinny legs jutting from her skin.

Dying youth, starving youth,

How beautiful you seem.

When hollowness becomes a goal,

Decay becomes the dream.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proudly Rejected by Calyx Journal.

Image
Two rejections in one week? Sigh. CALYX (A journal of Art and Literature by Women) sent me a very polite form letter today rejecting four of my poems. They wrote, "We appreciate the opportunity to review your submission and consider it for publication. At least two editors have read your work and found that we are unable to use your submission in the Journal. We apologize for replying with a form letter, but the volume of submissions no longer allows us the luxury of a personal reponse." I thought it was worded particularly well, and the editor actually wrote my first name on the top in real pen and signed the bottom. That's unique. I've never recieved a rejection letter where they signed it with real pen. So, Calyx Journal- I rate you FOUR STARS for class. Here is one of the poems they rejected. Maybe it's not subtle enough. I'm not very good at subtlety yet. Chrysalis A butterfly can’t return to her chrysalis No matter how fast the outside winds blow, No ma...
Read more

"Back to School" Proudly published by the Kern Valley Sun

Image
This week I had four different students tell me that they thought I was a "cool," "popular" teacher. Obviously, I have never shown them the above picture of myself. As you can see, I am one classy lady. I am a complete geek. Unfortunately, it's not in that, "I'm a geek, and I started my own multi-million dollar computer company" way that's really popular right now. I also wasn't a geek in the "I have poor hygiene, and other students throw their lunches at me" sort of way, thank goodness. I was the kind of geek who didn't watch R-Rated movies, looked a lot like Velma from Scooby Doo (I still do, in fact), really liked hanging out with their parents, was shocked by cussing, read 19th century novels for fun, spoke like a walking dictionary, and who teachers always really liked. Ergo, I became an English teacher. When I got to college, I learned that all of the above traits were actually strengths, which was a relief. Do the kids ...
Read more

Sure I'm trailer-trash- Do you have a problem with that?

Image
One of the hardest questions that has plagued my writing has simply been, "What do I write about?" I have often heard the advice, "Write about what you know." Well, when I started writing and really putting my mind to it, I was only twenty-one. Basically, all I knew was high school, college, and a few European countries I'd visited during college. I didn't have very much to say for myself. I made myself write anyway with some good results, but nothing really stellar. Starting this blog last year gave me an excellent lab to bounce my ideas off of readers. By far my most popular peices have been about the wacky situations I manage to get myself into. I'm not a stupid person, but sometimes....I do some very silly things. Anyway, I'm twenty-seven now and the past six years have helped me come up with some new ideas that I think will be very successful. My husband and I have been building our own home and living in a 30 foot trailer in my in-law's fr...
Read more