ANGER

LUCILLE HAMILTON

Anger is alive in me.

I've swallowed it for so long,

like a sword-swallower,

flaming it down my throat.

I don't recognize it

until its bitter taste

overcomes the soft words of placation

striving to push back the stark,

brutal truth of some injustice

that has its primal root in my being.

Sour, corrosive bile is the price paid

for such denial,

buckling our bodies in a swamp of inertia

and self-defeat.

A choice with no victory.

Recognizing this aspect of myself,

even bowing down in recognition

of the salvation it offers,

breaks apart the strong hold of fear

that expressing anger has,

and let's me learn what service 

anger - and its truth - bring to me

and to all from whom 

I withheld my truth.

2013


Lucille Hamilton - Lucille grew up in N.J., on the cliffs opposite NYC.  Wrote poems as a teenager. 

Graduating college, she worked in London, Rome, briefly living in Vienna beforereturning to work 

as an R.N. in NYC.  Upon retirement, she moved to California and began writing with the Sonoma Writers Alliance.