April 03, 2009
A dark inheritance:
There's a brief but powerful piece in today's New York Times on inheritance, environment and suicide by the daughter of poet Anne Sexton, who ended her own life in 1974 while in her mid-forties.
The article reflects on the recent suicide of Nicholas Hughes, the son of poet Sylvia Plath who also die in the same way.
It's a striking piece because Sexton's daughter has made her own suicide attempts and tries to untangle what contributes to a risk for self-harm which can run through families.
If you've not read it, Edge, Plath's last poem, written only days before she died is a remarkable thing, dark yet calm and at once fluent and disjointed.
Link to NYT piece 'A Tortured Inheritance' (via Trouble with Spikol)
