Can Poetry Romanticize Toxic Relationships?

While there’s a huge range of love poems, many glamorize unhealthy relationships.

Illustration Courtesy of Okalinichenko on Adobe Stock

I read a lot of poetry. If you also read a lot of poetry, this might be a question that’s struck you too.

I was recently listening to a poetry craft talk from the poet Brenda Shaughnessy where she discussed phenomenology in poetry and intergenerational trauma. It was an incredible talk that got me thinking, especially when the Q&A after her talk turned toward how difficult it can be to write about childhood experiences.

Poetry is obsessed with the deeper tie of pain and love. Yet as much as this is relatable for so many of us, is this really a necessary component of love? As writers, should we be celebrating these ridiculously relatable notions without noting that this is a mark of trauma and abuse on so many of us?

There’s a great deal of dialogue now on how “suddenly everyone has trauma.”

Illustration Courtesy of Okalinichenko on Adobe Stock

People will say this great callousness as if people becoming more aware of mental health is somehow a bad thing. This is anecdotal…