How to Write Healing Poetry: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Through Pain

You don't always realize you're writing healing poetry while you're living through the pain.

Some days, you write a single sentence and end with an unexpected epiphany. Other times, your poems feel like nothing more than scattered words on a page—until months or even years later, when you read them again and finally understand what your heart was trying to say.

That's the beautiful thing about healing poetry: the goal isn't the finished poem or a book in hand. That's just a bonus. The healing happens in the writing itself.

When I wrote my debut poetry collection, Shadow Confessions: Raw Version, I never intended for anyone else to read it. Those pages held some of the rawest, darkest, and most honest words I'd ever written. Publishing the book was never the reward. The reward was reaching a place where I could finally process what I'd written and realize how far I'd come.

That's why I believe poetry is something anyone can write—and everyone should. You don't need perfect grammar. You don't need to rhyme. You don't need to follow rules or fit your thoughts into a particular form. Healing poetry gives your mind a safe place to release pain, grief, fear, anger, and hope without judgment.

If you've ever wanted to write your way through difficult emotions but didn't know where to begin, this guide is for you. Let's put pen to paper together.

First: You don't have to be a poet

Ever since I started my writing journey, people in my real life have made a point of telling me how bad they are at writing. I could never be a writer. I could never put my work out there. I could never write a book. I could never write a poem—that's where I stop them.

Anyone can write a poem; it's the beauty of the art form.

Poetry is completely subjective. It can be written with perfect grammar and structure, or not. It can rhyme, or not. It can have a stunning, intricate form that creates a picture that represents a completely separate metaphor for the entire piece, or not.

There are no rules.

You don't have to dream of publishing your work or writing an entire book to write poetry—just as you don't have to become a professional house painter because you painted your bedroom wall and enjoyed it. Poetry can be an art, a hobby, a form of therapy, or simply a way to express yourself. It can be whatever you need it to be.

Why Poetry Can Be So Healing

Poetry allows emotion to exist as is, without alteration or need for explanation. When writing poetry for healing purposes, there is no pressure to do anything but put words on paper, in whatever form they choose to come out.

Sometimes, during therapy or conversations with loved ones, I still find myself filtering out my feelings. I have a limit as to how much I will reveal when speaking, and it's been difficult for me to knock down that wall completely, even after decades of trying.

Poetry allows me to be free. It allows me to put down words I need to see but don't feel the need to reveal to others. I've had many poetry in my lifetime and confetti parties of ripped journal pages.

Writing poetry also allows me to challenge harmful or negative thoughts once they're out in the open—something that's much harder to do when they're trapped inside my mind. Sometimes, it's not until those thoughts take physical form on the page that I truly see them for what they are. Left unspoken, they're easier to rationalize, allowing them to grow until they begin to feel like reality.

You can write a poem about anything and everything, but for healing, poetry is especially good for...

• grief

• heartbreak

• motherhood/parenthood

• burnout

• anxiety

• personal growth

• loss

Want to write about something that doesn't fit into these categories? Do it! It's your practice. You make it what you want it to be and get what you need out of it.

I know..this is long. Pin to save for later!

Where to start as a beginner

So you've never written a poem, and you're already getting anxious about not knowing where to start. Breathe. Let's start simple.

Many people who aren't regular poetry readers or writers think back to their first experiences with poetry, which often involved studying complex works by Shakespeare or poems with intricate forms. Believe me—even as a poet, I find those intimidating sometimes! The good news is that poetry doesn't have to look like that. It can be as simple or as free as you need it to be.

Start where you are in life. Think about what types of struggles or joys you have been experiencing. Think about where you want to be vs. where you are, and what the biggest obstacles have been to getting there. What is consuming your mind?

If you're new to poetry, the best place to start is simply by putting pen to paper. Try these forms first:

• Journaling freely. Whatever comes out, comes out!

• Free verse poetry. You don't need a form or a rhyme. Just write words as they feel in lines of all sizes.

• Writing one sentence. Start with a thought. See where it goes!

• Writing lists. Some of my favorite poems are just lists people made of things going on in their lives. Lists can be poetry!

• Use your senses. Look around and just write sentences about what you see, hear, smell, touch, think. See what happens!

For more ideas on where to start writing healing poetry, I'm planning to release a poetry prompt book for beginners soon. Stay tuned!

Suggestion: Write with pen and paper

Now, there are no rules for poetry to be healing. However, I do have a tiny little suggestion. When I say pen to paper, I mean it literally. Let me tell you why.

Yes, I am a HUGE fan of word-processing systems such as the Freewrite Traveler, which I use to write much of my creative work, including poetry collections. But my most emotional poems, the ones that truly healed me, were written with a pen on paper.

Writing with your hand requires you to slow down and process your words. You have to wait for your brain waves to meet your fingertips. It requires patience, just like healing. In fact, there are actual studies that show that the act of putting pen to paper leads to more elaborate brain connectivity, far more elaborate than typing on digital devices.

Plus, if you're a journal lover like me, there are SO many cute pens and journals out there to choose from. Make it fun. If you want to get really creative, check out the DIY leather journal I made! You can find all the journal tools to make your own in my Amazon Store.

What I learned from writing difficult poems

If you've been following my journey so far, you know that my poetry led to a diagnosis that changed my life for the better.

Since I was 16, I have been struggling with symptoms of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), which continued to intensify until I was diagnosed in my 30s. These symptoms led to severe depression, anxiety, and self-harming/dangerous thoughts, but without context or perspective outside of the turmoil and chaos I was living, I wasn't able to process them.

I've always been a writer and a poet, ever since I was a kid. I write randomly and chaotically. A lot of my poetry comes at night or floods my brain on random days. Back in 2020, I decided I wanted to write a poetry book. I figured I had so much poetry to choose from that putting a book together would be a cinch.

It wasn't. It wasn't a cinch in the least. But it was insightful and ultimately healing.

Instead of instantly putting together a book, I discovered some interesting patterns in my poetry. Every month, I had about a week of writing that was...different. It was dark and raw and sometimes completely strange to me, as if I hadn't even written it.

Now, despite being a poet, up until this time I rarely read my own poetry without burning it or throwing it away. This was one of the first times I actually had a bulk of work to sift through and enough evidence ot prove to myself that I was hurting deeply from something buried.

That's when my healing journey began.

I read my poetry with new eyes. I found patterns and symptoms that eventually led to research that led to PMDD content that led to conversations with my doctors and eventually a diagnosis. I realized I was unhappy in my relationship and in so many other areas of my life. I realized I didn't like the type of mother I was—or the type of woman, for that matter.

I saw myself in a whole new light. I finally had a place to start healing. I finally knew what I wanted to change and where to actually start.

Poetry Doesn't Erase Pain—It Gives It a Voice

Poetry isn't a cure. My life didn't magically become better after I started using poetry to heal. In fact, it got significantly worse for a while before it got better. But poetry was the stepping stone I needed. It helped me see what I had been carrying so I could finally begin to let some of it go.

Poetry can help you organize your thoughts, validate your emotions, cultivate gratitude, preserve memories, or gain perspective over time (as in my case). It can also force you to slow down enough to be present and intentional.

If you find it difficult to speak to others or to put your thoughts into words, poetry could be your medium. If you have so much pain but you're not sure what to do with it, poetry could be the thing.

Poetry is so versatile; it allows pain to show up as it is, not disguised as anything else. Sometimes, that's all we need to start healing. No more shadows or smoke screens.

The Poems That Became Shadow Confessions

For me, poetry gave me insight. It gave me some important questions that led to life-saving answers. It led me down a new path of completely overhauling my reality, but it also helped in simpler areas, such as being more patient, loving, and kind toward myself.

The poetry that ended up making it into my debut collection, Shadow Confessions: Raw Version, was the poetry that healed me the most. These were the poems I wondered if others would relate to. They were the pieces I felt were powerful enough to connect with others and raw enough to reach the hearts of those who were too afraid to admit they had the same thoughts—even to themselves.

Originally, I planned to burn this entire body of work, as I do. But at some point, I decided to do the opposite and release it to the world. I figured that if I could change my life by writing these words, maybe someone else could save themselves by reading them.

Shadow Confessions covers a number of different themes:

• motherhood

• identity

• failed love

• emotional exhaustion

• healing

• resilience

• learning to begin again

• PMDD awareness

  
  

These poems document an internal journey I had no idea I was navigating. It allowed me to bring the journey out into the world, make it real, and heal the broken parts that were holding me back from flourishing. Poetry didn't solve my problems, but it did open up a path for me to start.

Give healing poetry a try!

Healing doesn't happen all at once. It takes time. It takes patience. So does poetry.

Whether you keep your poems in a notebook or share them with the world (or burn them), every word is a reminder that your story deserves space to exist. What do you have to lose?

If you'd like to read where my own healing journey through poetry led, explore Shadow Confessions, a collection of poems about darkness, resilience, motherhood, love, and finding your way back to yourself by banishing the lies of the darkness.

Until next time, dreamers,