BOOK REVIEW
“Watch our relationship finish before my eyes like a camershutter.”
Laying You to Rest, is a modern-day ghost story in poetry form written by Lauren Eden. This poetry collection tells a story of a relationship ending and how the writer metaphorically wrote herself back from the confusion to clarity.
Laying You to Rest, speaks universally to anyone who has experienced a breakup, or a ghosting situation. Each poem, over the eight chapters, validates these range of emotions that many will resonate with in an uphill battle of the stages of grief. Penning tales drenched in emotional turmoil to becoming emotionally unavailable, the stiff bodied moments in plain sight with intimate details of the relationship was a heart-wrenching read with empowering lines to hit home for those who can relate.
See You Tonight opens the book of the relationship beginning seeing the story unfold of them falling in love, dismissing any red flags, and falling down the rabbit hole into wonderland. The Very Missing Person documents an abrupt end of a relationship, and the stages of grief to follow. In absolute disbelief and denial, You Look Like You’ve Seen a Ghost moves the story along to the bargaining stage when one loses pride becoming careless when receiving no acknowledgement. Stating, “men who aren’t guilty don’t run out on women like they are fleeing from a crime scene.” Leading to finally seeing the truth of being ghosted and the relationship is, in fact, over. Killing You is the anger phase with empowerment remembering the awful qualities of the other person to the focusing on oneself finding the self of self worth, again.
I Have Something in My Eye has a mix of sadness and grief all while wondering if the person was in love or was it all in ones’ mind. Turning You Into a Nicer Person Than You Were is an nostalgic chapter showcasing how one will torture themselves ignoring all bad and solely focusing on the good when wanting the person back. It’s bouncing from happy to sad frequently, making it an unbearable yet resonating read. It’s Your Funeral is laying the love lost to rest when finally accepting all that has come and gone. You Only Come Once a Year displays the haunting by a past love on the anniversary of the death of the relationship. Then accepting all that’s happened to heal the heartbreak and trauma to survive and move forward.
Each poem was brutally written with depthful honesty. There’s a lot of pain present that is felt when reading. Going from loving someone to seeing they look better when they’re missed, it’s a relatable read for many. Touching on a lot of topics, the main triggering one was self-medicating and toxicity within the relationship clearly stating this courtship would have never have lasted, even if the other person had never left. Comparing soft statements of ‘I miss you’ and ‘I love you’ to bricks when it’s said from the wrong person, it’s clear to see sometimes time doesn’t heal all wounds but it numbs us enough to carry on.
Lauren Eden is a writer from the Mornington Peninsula of Australia. She is the author of four published poetry books (Of Yesteryear, Atlantis, The Lioness Awakens, Laying You to Rest) and writes regularly on her popular Instagram @ofyesteryear.
INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about your writing background
I started writing poetry at about fourteen. I’d always been a bookworm. When I finished school I went to university and got an English major which led me to a very boring office job that made me cry in my car at the end of each day. Nearing the end of my maternity leave after having two babies, I created my Instagram account @ofyesteryear as a last attempt not to return, and surprisingly, it took off. There’s nothing like a co-worker eating fish for lunch in your shared office every day to get you motivated! Five years later, I am releasing my fourth poetry book.
What, or who, inspired you to start writing?
Believe it or not, it was an episode of Oprah featuring a bunch of authors that made me start writing. I was fourteen and my mum had it on in the background, and I remember one of the writer’s having the naughtiest gleam in her eye I’d ever seen as she confessed that she would always tell a story that was important to her, even if it meant risking hurting her own grandmother. I was wildly attracted to that kind of ruthlessness and passion, and so writing became like a thrilling, somewhat sneaky, rebellious thing to do before I went to bed each night. I became obsessed with my inner world, and admittedly, quite smug about it.
And what influenced your latest book Laying You To Rest?
Books like The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter and Stag’s Leap by Sharon Olds that added a narrative form to their poetry inspired my idea to turn Laying You to Rest into a poetic tale. I’d only ever read poetry collections before that had no connective tissue between the pages. I felt like there was a lot of same-same in the modern poetry circuit and so I wanted to do something a little different. True events inspired the story of Laying You to Rest. I had experienced being ghosted and was going through a process of healing from the unfinished business it leaves. Most of my self-healing comes from a very intuitive place and so the idea came to me one day to plan a funeral for my ghost. I believe ritual is a container for healing, and as funerals offer a kind of closure, well an acceptance at least, in a situation where no explanation has been given for the termination of a relationship, I thought it was a way for me to take responsibility for my own closure in an empowering way.
How do you find the balance between writing about your own personal experiences and exploring topics that may not necessarily be autobiographical, but still speak to so many people?
There’s a reason poetry belongs to neither the non-fiction or fiction genre. My poetry is very much a blend of both. Poetry is an emotional dredging, and so I don’t always know the difference between truth and a lie because feelings are transitory and not fact. I do write often from my own personal experiences which often move into a fictional direction. Sometimes a line is just a good line! Does it matter if it’s true? I never try to write for an audience. I’m not a fan of the kind of writing that talks to the reader — unless of course you’re Charlotte Bronte in Jane Eyre— “Reader, I married him.” That kind of self-conscious inclusivity. I try my hardest to write with as little awareness of the reader as possible as I think that’s the key to authenticity. I think a book should feel like you’re eavesdropping on a good conversation.
What makes a piece of your writing right to post on your Instagram, versus the ones that stay in the book only?
I try to share teasers that will resonate to an Instagram audience, but the truth is it is always a gamble. I truly don’t know which ones will resonate and I am often surprised. From The Lioness Awakens I had no idea that my quote, “When you are not served love on a silver spoon you will learn to lick it off knives” would be my most shared line. I mean, I liked it! Maybe in a way I didn’t want people to be able to relate to it as much as they did as it comes from a deep wound of mine. Turns out a lot of us are hurt. With Laying You to Rest it’ll be a little different as there aren’t as many stand-alone lines or poems as most are contextual to the rest of the book. But I’ve been feeding more one-liners in the last five years than a guy at the bar pre-COVID, so I was eager to write some longer pieces.
And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Do not sell your soul! It isn’t worth it. Not everybody is going to make money off of their writing, although there are still plenty of jobs in the writing industry that pay. But for your creative work, your personal work, your elixir, the kind that you write because you are an artist — DO NOT BUDGE. Do not accommodate. Do not copy formulas for success. Be entirely yourself. That is your superpower. That is what will set you apart. Your readers, be it 1 or 1000 will come to you. Maybe to some people writing is just writing, but for me it’s soul. It’s incredibly personal. And to deviate too far for the sake of success, in my opinion, it just isn’t worth it. Stay true. Do something revolutionary.
Grab a copy of Lauren Eden’s book’s, here.
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