Born to Love, Cursed to Feel (Samantha King)

There are very few things that I consider to be as beautiful as poetry. I’ve enjoyed writing since I understood the concept of putting words together and at a young age I used to try to write songs. I quickly discovered I wasn’t quite vocally blessed and being slightly selfish I didn’t want to give my songs away to anyone else. Then I discovered poetry. I believe it was my 4th grade teacher that assigned us poems in class one day. Unfortunately, I can’t remember how the poem went and I don’t have a clue as to where I could have stashed an extra copy, all I remember was that the poem was about a mother’s love and I somehow compared a mother’s embrace to the pull of the ocean. Anyway, my teacher took me aside, asked me to explain it and then requested that I make her a copy. She sweetly gushed about how she loved it and I remember being completely astounded at the idea of someone wanting to keep my words for themselves. The favor was so insignificant but somehow it instilled in my little 4th grade self that writing is something I was meant to do and I think about that day often.

Poetry, while enticing, isn’t always happy. In fact, the majority of my favorite poems tend to have a melancholic tone. There is beauty in sadness because it’s powerful, it’s raw emotion, it’s relatable. As vulnerable as poetry is, it can also be opened to interpretation. Like any other form of art, the poet knows how they chose this structure or why they chose that diction, or why the sequence of poems is laid out that way but if you ask an artist what their work means to them and what it means to you isn’t the same, that’s okay. For me, the point of any art is for the viewer to be able to give it their own meaning, to walk away having taken something away from it. When I found myself in the poetry section of the bookstore I was in awe at every book I picked up, but the title alone of this book struck me with so much emotion I just had to dive in.

I believe the best way to get better at something, is to practice it. I’m also a very visual learner so what works for me is watching someone who’s good at this particular thing, execute it. So to become a better writer, I read, a lot. To become a better poet, I don’t just read poetry, I analyze it, I interpreted it, I question it and most importantly I annotate it. My copy of Born to Love, Cursed to Feel, is stained with my notes. Normally, with a poetry book, I would just read it through, maybe bookmark my favorite poems and move on. However, I took a different approach with this book. My comments all over this book vary from my own opinions, a song a stanza reminded me of, a person or memory a certain line made me miss or simply highlighting an outstanding metaphor. I haven’t read poems while both appreciating the content and analyzing the writing at the same time, so I had a lot of fun with it!

This is the first of King’s work I’ve ever read and it certainly won’t be the last. The sequence of each poem stood out to me the most because each contributed to the big picture of what I can only assume is her life. Each page overwhelmed me with emotion and I found my heart breaking for scenarios that have never even happened to me. I find it hard to talk about a book that’s made up of poems because although there’s still a story there, it’s not an approach some people appreciate but I on the other hand find poetry hard to dislike. I’m thankful for the way King so eloquently translated emotion into actual sentences, that’s what made this such an agreeable read!

As always, thank you for reading!