Coping in the face of evil

I decided to write a poem a while ago, which i posted on this site today. It's called 'There's something I have to tell you...'

I just wanted to write a little bit of background on this poem. The reason I wrote it was because a very close friend of mine was abused as a child, and violated by a family friend. She confided in me and it really inspired me to write a poem about her experience.

As my friend grew older it haunted her immensely. She found it extremely hard to trust anyone, was extremely frigid in her dealings with men. She never really trusted men at all and thought she'd die without ever having sexual relations with anyone. I believe for a while she was asexual, but only through fear. When she did finally meet someone at University, who was extremely understanding, loving and just right for her, she still felt as if she couldn't tell him about her past, through fear of judgement and the added horror of talking about her experiences.

Yet when she actually did tell him, (and this is documented in the poem) she said, she felt relief and she felt liberated that she no longer had to live with this dark secret inside her. She told me that as he cried for her, she felt as if she had regained her freedom and her love for life. I suppose through his tears she realised that she could love someone truly, and that she wasn't asexual so to speak.

So the point of this entry is, (and its my first entry) if anyone has ever been through such an experience, sometimes telling someone could liberate you, and could make you feel free again. Its better to struggle through something with someones love than do it alone.

I likened her struggle in my poem as a chapter in her life. And I suppose in books we have good chapters and bad chapters. So, if something like this happens, it doesn't mean all the chapters in your life should continue being bad. The good chapters are closer than you might think ;)

Thanks for reading
Maddy
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