Leslie Mcgraw

Emergencies of the Heart: Poetry (Life by Poetry) (Volume 1) Leslie Mcgraw 1st edition

Every generation of Americans has at least one moment where young adults are faced with the worst and best of humanity on a national scale. For McGraw, the demolition of the twin towers while occupied was that moment. In this debut collection, poet and journalist Leslie McGraw shares a risky mix of news, live interviews, and personal journal entries collected over twelve years, beginning on September 11, 2001. Grief captured in McGraw?s journal started as a way to deal with all the death seen on the news and morphed into a movement of self-discovery and personal healing that helped her deal with her own depression and loss. "During the first years, most of my journaling had to deal with my emotions ? how I felt about this or that. Once I started to mine those journals, I found something deeper. Something beyond the flesh- my true self. In this twelve year process, I discovered beauty and dirt about myself. For instance, I realized that much of my longing to have someone to love and be loved back was really a longing to be heard, to be valued, to be shown affection and given acceptance."