Can’t Quite Express is a 6500+-word epic poem.

Part expression, part confession, part question, it is an intimate look at the impact of mental illness, trauma, and neglect. A critical dissection of the interconnected roles that family, religion, society, education, and government play, as well as their impacts upon an individual. A commentary on current affairs, historical trends, and the bleak potential of our collective future, Can’t Quite Express is also both an example of, and an encouragement for, writing therapy.

It will show you how to use writing to heal, and then encourage you to pick up a pen and begin for yourself.

The page listens. 

It doesn’t judge.

It has a perfect memory but can be easily discarded.

It is always available, always accepting, always there.

Can’t Quite Express will move you to contemplate, introspect, and act. It will leave a mark, one that will reverberate into your future through your words, actions, relationships, and writing.

There are things I want to say

But just can't quite express

Ruminations and meditations I'm too afraid to address

Like the veil over my eyes

That keeps me hidden from the stress

To the dark wishes I'm fighting to suppress

Like the fear and anxiety

That I will constantly transgress

To the past expressions I am never going to confess

Like how everything I do

Gives me nothing but duress

To the unwavering ache and torment

That’s causing me to regressI must profess

I desire to express my stress

Confess to address this abscess

To obsess on happiness

To aim for excess

And to stop living like such a mess

Yes

I want to make progress

But there are just some things I can't quite express