\u201cthe princess saves herself in this one\u201d is a book full of beautifully written poetry depicting the struggles, challenges, and victories of its author, Amanda Lovelace. Lovelace exposes herself in an unapologetically serious way, leaving her struggles out in the open for all to see. Not only does this take courage, but it takes talent. The art of tastefully exposing your own past is not one easily mastered. There are four parts to this book: I. the princess, II. the damsel, III. the queen, and IV. you.<\/p>\n
Part I focuses on Lovelace\u2019s childhood and what she was like growing up. She is discovered to be an avid reader, clinging to her books as some kind of escape from the harsh reality of her surroundings. The author uses words as a way to keep herself sane, the same way that apparently her mother used alcohol and abuse. There are a few poems in the book that describe things that her mother had done to her, such as the one on page 15 that says:<\/p>\n
there are
\nsome mothers
\nwho will warn you
\nto never ever
\n(ever ever)<\/i>
\ntouch the stove,
\nbut there are
\nsome mothers who
\nwill drag you right to it
\nkicking & screaming,
\nlaughing
\nas they
\nwatch the flames
\nlick at your
\nfingertips.
\n– when you\u2019re taught to see the world through fire, nothing looks safe.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis poem gives readers a glimpse of how terribly the author was treated in her childhood by her own mother, which is something that, at least openly, not many people can not relate to. The fact that this author was bold enough to share such a tender part of her life with readers all over the world makes her stronger than anyone I\u2019ve ever known. It takes a big person to be open with the things that have happened to them.<\/p>\n
Part II centers around Lovelace\u2019s \u201cromantic\u201d past and features more about her mother, such as her mother\u2019s death. The author, on top of everything we learned that happened to her earlier in her life, has been mistreated and abused, physically and emotionally, by the men in her life that assumed the role of \u201csignificant other\u201d over the years. The men acted like they would be her savior from her life, but they would bring her back to a life at least as bad as her previous life. One poem on page 44 explained this in different words:<\/p>\n
the damsel
\nlet the dragons
\nswoop down
\n& steal her away
\nfrom the ugliness
\nof her world.
\nunbeknownst to her,
\nshe was only trading
\none tower
\nfor another.
\n– the wickedest liars of all.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIn that poem, the dragons were men, and the towers were situations and circumstances that the author did not want to be a part of. If she had known at the time that the dragons were as dangerous as they were, she probably would have waited longer to be rescued. There are many poems like this one throughout the book, and every one of them allows the reader to get to know the author in a way that is more personal and vulnerable than the last. This book is not for the faint of heart, and it is clear to see that the author is putting a lot of faith in the readers to avoid abusing this power that she is giving them.<\/p>\n
Part III, the queen, shows Lovelace becoming more confident and coming to terms with the things that have happened in her life, and it introduces a new love that seems to be significantly less toxic than the others, perhaps not even toxic at all. She realizes that there have been men that have fooled her in the past, but of this one, she says:<\/p>\n
if he was
\nmy cup of tea,
\nthen you are
\nmy cup of
\ncoffee.
\ntea simply
\nisn\u2019t
\nenough
\nfor me
\nsometimes,
\nbut
\ncoffee
\ncan get me
\nthrough
\nanything.
\n– did i make you up?<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt seems apparent that the author realizes that this man will be able to help her and support her in ways that no other man ever could, and with what she has been through in her life, she really needs someone like him to keep her steady. She wrote several poems about how much this man was willing to do for her, and she let the readers know that he was more than willing to make sacrifices for her that no one else ever would.<\/p>\n
The final section of the book is part IV, you. This part is about the author\u2019s love for poetry, her hate for society and its judgement of people, and her love for the strength and grace of women. The poems in this section can inspire people to write, to feel better about themselves, to accept who they are, and to never give in to what other people expect of them. My personal favorite from the last part of the book is this:<\/p>\n
trees
\nhave words
\nthe wind
\ncannot carry,
\nso we must
\nwrite
\non them
\ntheir stories
\nuntil there are
\nnone left
\nfor them
\nto tell.
\n– write the story.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\nThis one encourages people to write for those who can\u2019t, and to write until there is nothing left to tell, which, due to the differences in people, is an end that will never quite be reached. There will always be a story for someone to tell, even when you\u2019re the only one that is going to hear it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lyssa Henry \u201cthe princess saves herself in this one\u201d is a book full of beautifully written poetry depicting the struggles, challenges, and victories of its author, Amanda Lovelace. Lovelace exposes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":2125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[340],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-studies","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2122"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2122\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}