'Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health' by Dave Jaffe

   Writing Poetry Can Endanger Your Health -  Part One


    "Poetry makes nothing happen," wrote the British poet Wystan Hugh Auden. Auden was one of Britain's great 20th century poets. At one time he was a Marxist  and later re-wrote parts of his poetry so as to cut out its political messages.
    Still, W.H. Auden lived into his sixties and writing poetry didn't hurt him.It made him famous and allowed him to write some beautiful verse.
    Others weren't so lucky. Here I'm basically continuing to write about artists, in this case poets, who lived through some tough times. I've done this elsewhere on my blog.
     Emily Nelligan was born in Quebec in 1879. He started to write poetry in French when he was in his teens.But in 1899 he was supposedly hit by a nervous breakdown. he spent the rest of his life in a mental asylum.
    Recent biographers claim that Nelligan's mother put him an asylum because he was gay.Yet whether this was true or not, writing poetry didn't make Nelligan's life a happy one.
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