Todd Wooten

I have always been jealous of the confident people that surround me. Those people who know what they want, who they are, where they are going. The people who fall asleep before their head hits the pillow.

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I have tried to be many things, searching for that confidence. I have been a preacher, a stay-at-home dad, a concert pianist, a behavioral unit patient, a credit union executive. Am I a poet? I will leave that to you.

 

My mother died from cancer when I was 18, my son died from suicide at 15. I am 45. Those numbers do not add up. Sprinkle in two failed marriages, a dash of childhood trauma, and ongoing mental illness and you have me. 

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I began writing poetry after walking a labyrinth in September 2022. Since that day, I have been putting down on paper the pain and despair that I carry. Content Warning: My poetry explores themes of childhood trauma, mental illness, suicide, and death which may be distressing to some readers.