Emergencies of the Heart: Poetry

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.