Laura Wagner’s poem “Metaphoric Sadness” is a piece that all writers, specifically poets, need to read and can relate to. In this piece Wagner does the opposite of what most writers I know do: she asks people not to become poets. The first line “do not be a poet darling, i beg you” immediately drew me in due to this unique stance. She then goes on to explain why being a poet doesn't always mean being a romantic logophile who spends his/her days delving into the magical realms of eloquent expression. Rather, she tells readers, “do not allow yourself to drown in the darkness of your mind and choke on the unattainable beauty of your imagination.”
          I paused to stare and reread that line because I realized it was so true. As writers, I feel like we often isolate ourselves from society if not physically, than mentally. We distance ourselves from other people to fill our heads with phrases and characters, to plant the right string of words and the perfect bubble of paragraphs. We spend so much time inside our heads, we seem to almost “drown” in it. Not only are we drowning in it, we are also faced with the reality that we can only dream but never live the fantasies inside our minds. We are deprived of what we spend the most of our time with.
          Another line that caught my attention was, “do not turn your life into a metaphor for sadness.” As someone who enjoys writing and poetry, I sometimes tend to have to lower my self-esteem and lower mood in order to get words out onto a page. If I'm in a terrible mood, I'll deepen my sadness or my anger by writing and elaborating on it. If I'm feeling normal, I'll gravitate towards something, even if it's minor, in my mind and expand on that. I'm not saying I particularly enjoy pain but sometimes the best material comes from the darkest places within us. There is just much more to write about when if comes to sadness and I think that's what Laura Wagner was trying to say in this poem: don't be a poet because sometimes to create good art, you have to divulge into sadness.