Last week, Anne Sexton showed up and informed me that she is part of my family now.
Some educated readers may be saying “How can you not have read Anne Sexton before?”
But remember, I am new to the more avid pursuit of poetry. I have had no courses, no structure; no homework to guide me. I don’t read poetry to educate myself, although I want and need to learn more about the art of poetry. Educating myself is not a strong enough yearning to keep me reading when intense depression makes learning feel pointless.
I read it because it brings people like Anne Sexton into my life in a way that time, death, or dysfunction cannot take away.
Anne Sexton won the Pulitzer Prize in 1967 and took her own life in 1974. She had a long history of psychiatric hospitalizations, and credited the practice of poetry with extending her life by many years. She wrote about everything you might imagine, with occasional emphases on themes such as fairy tales and God. She was a confessional poet, shocking people at the time, and an important force in feminist psychology.
I don’t like everything of hers that I’ve read so far. As with many poets, it’s a case of little gems popping up here and there.
But she is one of my circle now; her words belong to me and live in the house of my imagination. She joins all of my sisters and brothers, created by words and shaped into my council of meaning.
T.S. Eliot is pouring her a cup of tea. Sharon Olds hangs up her wet raincoat and offers her a towel. John Donne bows and kisses her hand as Emily Dickinson moves over to make space on the sofa.
Welcome, Anne, and thanks for coming.
Lori Lynne Armstrong 
Nice post!!!