"My Friend, My Friend" (Anne Sexton Poem)

A songwriting exercise with favorable results.

I'll be honest about my poetry consumption: it's pretty dang low as of late. However, I was given a book of poetry by Anne Sexton on tour last fall from the Young Fresh Fellows. I started looking for poems that felt like they could also be songs, and got as far as the third poem in the book.

"My Friend, My Friend" read and felt like they could be lyrics for some rhythmic, modal, muted piano type deal. What drew me to this one is how provocative and ballsy it felt. The existential dread being batted away with dry humor. That's kinda my thing as well. Not the ballsy & provocative part, but the swatting away at the dread with best dry wit one can muster, part.

I now need to go read even more Anne Sexton, who like many my age first learned about her through the song "Mercy Street" from Peter Gabriel's 1986 Masterpiece "So."

Thanks for listening.