Mack E P Griffith

Confessions of The Careful Poet Mack E P Griffith

Confessions of the Careful Poet is a three part compilation of poetry spanning 8 years and showing the poet's progression throughout some of the most trying times of his life. Part one is called "Go Out on a Limb and When it Breaks, Take Flight" and contains poetry written between 2009 and 2015. The reader will see as the poet begins struggling intensely with depression, anxiety, and physical pain while also finding comfort in his faith. The second part, "Infinity x Forever", written between 2015 and 2016, is a complicated mix of love, fear, joy, pain, and a scrambling for hope which shows a fundamental shift in the poet's experience. He falls in love for the first real time and then realizes that if anyone were to discover that fact, he might lose everything. The final part, titled "Confessions of the Careful Poet", shows the poet's hard-fought acceptance of his own identity and the struggle of coming out to a conservative evangelical family as a transgender man. As a whole, this book shows a progression from childhood to maturity, from fear to courage, and from lies to the truth. It shows the reality of growing up as the poet struggles with depression, anxiety, sickness, pain, death, fear, and rejection all while finding and embracing love, joy, truth, hope, friendship, a renewed faith, and ultimately himself.