Note from the author to the editor:
I had in mind that I might send you “Eating Emotions,” originally published in Magma 85—a schools edition, but reworked since looking at it again. This morning when I lifted my head I noticed a piece of artwork I’d made, Petri Dish Emotions, that held my eye in a way that only made sense later in the day when I saw a short video clip of a TED talk by Brené Brown and heard her say:
‘If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs 3 things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence & judgement. If you put the same amount of shame and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive…If we’re going to find our way back to each other, vulnerability will be that path.’
It’s as though my eye had known what my ear would hear later – but kept it a secret until the reveal. Body intelligence, otherwise known as intuition. I felt I had to share the confluence of concepts!
Eating Emotions
Of what does disappointment taste?
Feathers in a sandwich, curled and stale
Anger’s biting-hot like pepper sauce
bile of Remorse or Regret – a slice
of salted lime received on the tongue
swallowed with vinegar-wine – sharp
and hard to force down. I know that
Shame sticks fast like toffee or fudge
cloying like spoonfuls of sesame paste
Failure’s bone-dry like ash or sawdust
but taste of Hope – so warm and sweet
may yet turn bitter, and repeat.
—About the Artist/Author—
Janina Aza Karpinska is a multi-disciplinary artist-poet from the south coast of England. She achieved an M.A.(with Merit) in Creative Writing & Personal Development at Sussex, and has poetry and artwork published in: Poems in the Waiting Room; Ekphrastic Review; London Reader; Heron Tree; Cold Signal; Epistemic Lit; Midwest Zen; Raising the Fifth; Heart of Flesh; The Genre Society; Quibble, and Rundelania among others.
*Check out more of Janina’s work HERE!*