BOOK REVIEW
I Like It Cuz It’s Pink, is an amazing book with resonating storytelling told in poetry form written by Sarah McMahon. It deals with themes of love, mental health, and self worth all written with such honesty showcasing her vulnerability that is truly outstanding.
There’s a lot of diversity throughout the four parts of the book that will keep the reader intrigued and interested to dive deeper into the poetry collection. It’s a touching publication with her rawness front and centre along with exploring romance, familial, and self love in an inspiring language that is beautifully written. It’s clear it’s a feminist manifesto, inspiring others to be their fierce self through the confidence in her writing.
Love is a first date that eats up a whole night without indigestion.
Opening the book to the first chapter ‘Good Love’ with a poem titled ‘The OG Love Poem (all the rest suck’ is an interesting choice intriguing the reader to see what the rest of the book has in store. There’s a lot of long piece poems with fascinating storytelling that keeps the reader in-line while reading. The writer does not sugarcoat how she feels when discussing relatable and horrific topics of abuse, eating disorders, and mental health. At the end of this chapter, she writes a letter to her younger self that is heartfelt and endearing.
There is no user guide
for how to gently break a heart
how to hold it beating
without squeezing too hard.
Chapter two titled ‘Bad Love’ sees the writer calling out a lot. “A dick pic is not a gift, it’s an ego boost,” she pens with confidence. She includes interesting titles with fantastic hut punch reads. There’s a sense of reliability in her writing that many will resonate to - especially the poem titled ‘Anxious Avoidant Attachment’ discussing anxious reactions shining a light on mental health in an awakening way. There’s a sense of awareness when she writes about giving her heart away to those who don’t care. Then figuring out the pros and cons of a relationship, giving insight to penning, “one for us” when tallying “all for nothing, it seems, but this poem.” It’s an interesting progressing to the book including topics on heartache, sex, and tattered relationships.
Alone is a place I always feel safe.
In chapter three, she discusses if she saw herself clearly she would hate herself less - and it’s an important statement for the reader to acknowledge for themselves, too. It’s an endearing and eye opening part of the book diving deeper into what she wants to share. Enclosing a powerful poem entitled ‘This Woman’ that many may relate to, making the point that a woman lived and died without the burden of a ‘man child’. It’s an empowering yet fascinating read going on to mention a strange seductive woman with no hankering for children. Following this, she writes about hungry men, then shining like a galaxy knowing her worth after much heartache.
There’s a proud sense of boldness in her writing as she acknowledges the twisting attention, she pens, “these eyes make men feel so alive. This brain, this face, this body, this mind.” But if she didn’t discuss certain topics, thus far, who would? Moving along to talk to her brain about struggling after reading magazines with toxic tendencies to weaken the insecure, it’s an important poem in the book as many will resonate with. She doesn’t understand her own brain, then searches through mediums that make her feel her reflection is unflattering. “Hey Brain, I need you to wait until I figure this out,” she writes. As the writer opened up about her eating disorder, it’s a fresh take on this worldwide issue.
“Your father doesn’t like children,” she said
so I learned even food should cater to men.
There’s truly a sense of realism to her writing with strength in her storytelling. Highlighting family issues for the last chapter, she includes a ‘Dear Dad’ poem written with love and honesty as she confronts her feelings and well-being overall pointing out how she cannot recall her father saying ‘I love you’, but knowing he means it when he says ‘take care’. Afraid her words will push him away, she needed to write this going on to acknowledge how men treat her in confusing ways she cannot make sense of it all. . .leading back to her relationship with her father. Then, from feeling proud of having ‘friends in low, low places’ to calling everything out in order to make sense of it all, in her poem ‘My Church’, she pens, “boys will be boys, right? / and the women who raise them will look away / and the women who marry them choose to stay,” it’s an important piece, finishing the poem off with, “look shame in the face / and it’ll disperse / but that’s no anything / I learned in my church.” She’s opening her eyes to every detail of her life and figuring out what works and doesn’t work for her.
As the book progresses, there’s a sense of darkness that she wandered through of non-enoughness in romantic relationships. There are many immediately relatable poems in, I Like It Cuz It’s Pink, especially prior to the self-love poems that are full of encouragement. Writing I Like It Cuz It’s Pink, as a tribute to every woman who has ever felt like she is less, it’s an important publication. And although it’s a hard read with a lot of almost taboo topics that in-turn the reader will interalise and think about each individual piece, even if the shoe doesn’t fit for the entire poetry collection, it’s an insightful and thought-provoking read.
Sarah McMahon is a poet, blogger, and ultra runner based out of Laguna Beach, CA. She currently works in fundraising for the American Red Cross and manages a blog (The Prosiest) where she writes about running, eating disorders, and mental health. She earned a B.S. and M.A. in English from Bradley University where she also competed as a Division I athlete.
Words by Danielle Holian
INTERVIEW
Tell us a bit about your writing background.
I started writing poetry and short stories around age 12, which is also around the same time I discovered my joy for running. I grew up in rural Northwestern Wisconsin and books were my primary source of entertainment. I loved to read, so it’s no surprise that I would want to try my hand at it. From there, I just gravitated toward the language arts in High School and went on to study English at Bradley University. I knew I wanted to be a writer. I just didn’t know how to make that a reality. Professionally, I write grants and fundraise, and being in the corporate world really helped me realize how critical written communication is. I never stopped writing for myself though, which is why I created my blog and then wrote my book.
What, or who, inspired you to start writing?
I don’t think it was any one person, but I had favorite authors and books growing up. I loved all the Goosebump books, the Ramona series, and anything by Sarah Dessen. My sixth grade English teacher had us write a short story every week and would pick students to read their story to the class every Friday. At the end of the school year, she took me aside and told me that I needed to continue writing and “share my gift with the world.” I’ll never forget that. She encouraged exploration in writing and helped me realise, very young, that it was something I could learn to do well.
And what influenced your poetry collection I Like It Cuz It’s Pink?
I’ve been writing poems forever, and I just sort of accumulated dozens of them. The ones in I Like It Cuz It’s Pink were accumulated over the course of about two and a half years, and many were written after I exited a destructive relationship. The book is mostly about love: romantic love, self-love, and familial love. I was exploring how each form of love informs our lives and how the foundation of self-love is familial love, and how the foundation of romantic love is self-love. Love is so much more than what we see in romance movies, and I was working my way through that. There were a lot of poems that didn’t make it into the collection because they didn’t fit, but I’m very proud of how I’ve evolved in just a few years and how these poems reflect that evolution.
And how do you find the balance between writing about your own personal experience and exploring topics that may not necessarily be autobiographical, but still speak to many people?
Such a great question! I think poems are always a little personal, even if they become something bigger than my personal experience. I write a poem at the end of every year, and 2020’s poem was hard because I wanted it to speak to a larger audience as well as reflect my personal experience living through a pandemic and all the drama that accompanied that. There are some things that most people can identify with though: heartache or loss, grief, loneliness, joy, financial hardship, etc. Writing and performing poetry has taught me that humanity has so much more in common than not. I’ve also found that my severely self-indulgent poems are never that good, so it behooves me to write as honestly as possible and not expect every poem to be something that I share widely or that many people will love.
What makes a piece of your writing right to post on your Instagram, versus the ones that stay in the book?
I started posting on social to appeal to a wider audience. Poetry journals are cool, but nobody reads them except other poets and I know my poems appeal to a younger generation who would never consider buying a journal. I take snippets of poems that I like or sometimes, if a poem is small enough, post the entire thing. Many of my poems are written to perform, so they’re 2-3 minutes long. I can’t obviously post the whole written thing, but a short, poignant snippet is a good way to get people interested in reading or hearing the whole poem.
And finally, what advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Write all the time, as frequently as possible. And don’t worry if you don’t like something; you must write things you don’t like to uncover things you do like. One of my professors used to tell me that I need to learn the rules of poetry before I can break them (and he was right). So, I’d also say study good writing. Learn the rules of language then play around with breaking them. Try new forms of writing to push yourself out of your comfort zone. Finally, learn to accept feedback and criticism without taking it personally. A critique of your writing is far from a critique of you.