Here lies HATE,

buried forever,

Freeing up feelings, once obscured by this imposter–

• sadness, despair, abandonment
• anger, betrayal, humiliation
• disgust, revolt, embarrassment
• fear, insecurity, rejection

Feelings often

ignored,

ruminated on,

avoided, or

acted upon

to harm self or others

Now that it is buried,

understand the emotions

that hate worked so hard to hide

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I loved Irene’s wisdom about hate in today’s word. Irene’s mom “taught (her) that underneath the word hate, there is almost always another emotion” and her wise mama helped her to identify the emotion instead of using the word hate. In her challenge today, Irene asks us to try something: “The next time you hear yourself–or someone else–say the word hate, turn over the metaphorical rock and see what emotion lurks underneath.

Read more here, where I found some ideas and words for my poem today: How to Deal with Negative Emotions by Elizabeth Scott, PhD

During each day in the months of August and September, I am responding to a different word from Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Mehrdokht Amini. Today’s word is (Epitaph for) Hate. A small group of people wanting to make the world a better place are reading and responding together. Join us! Visit Common Threads: Patchwork Prose and Verse by Kim Haynes Johnson for more information. Here is the word list I’ll be following for August and September.