So maybe I should start doing the prompts.

P.S.
Jewel

I wrote those nice poems
only because
the honest ones
would frighten you.

It's short and sweet. Sometimes I feel like I have to write these long posts in order to get my points across but she does it all in only a sentence.

I love how the title ties in the poem. The title makes it sound like it should be an afterthought. The substance of the poem coupled with the title sounds like a confession that she was too scared to admit at the beginning of a conversation or in the opening paragraph of a letter, but words that should have been said up front. Like when there's an elephant in the room the whole time you're visiting your parents, and when you are opening the door to leave, you say: "P.S. I eloped with my boyfriend from France. The one that you didn't like. And we had a nice little wedding in Vegas and now I'm pregnant."

It brings up the topic of honest vs. dark. Honest vs. positive. Are these concepts exclusive or inclusive? Can a poem be positive without ignoring the parts that are hard? Or is a truly positive poem coming to peace with the dark and incorporating both aspects of life? Does a nice poem lack substance?

This poem really felt like it was saying all the things that I didn't know how to put into a sentence. When I started my blog, my mom started reading it and she didn't like it. She was impressed that I could write, but she said, "Honey, why don't you write about happy things? Why don't you write about nice things? Why are you dwelling on the negative?"

But sometimes counting the positives on your fingers when you're drowning isn't practical. And you need to address the fact that you're drowning. And sometimes when you get pulled out of the water, you want to talk about it instead of pretending that it didn't happen. Writing about the beauty of the ocean when you're scared to death of getting in the water isn't honest. But it's nice.