Truth Confessions: The Chapbook

Merwin McCrady has been writing poetry since he was sixteen. He has always seen poems as tools to help him cope with mental trauma and anxiety. He is now sharing his work for the first time in this new poetry collection, Truth Confessions. 

Truth Confessionscontains nineteen poems written about different points in Merwin's life. His work gives you a powerful glimpse into his inner turmoil and past traumas. Through poems written in free verse, Merwin confronts a number of issues that followed him throughout his childhood and adolescence. He includes poems centered on parental abandonment, internalized homophobia, and debilitating depression. Merwin discusses the coping mechanisms, both healthy and harmful, that he used to work through these issues. 

Merwin also opens up about his identity as a member of the LGBT community and the internal and external struggles he has endured. His early, tentative explorations of his sexuality blossom into empowerment. Even in his lowest moments, Merwin never loses hope. He understands the power of his words, and he hopes his poems can inspire and comfort others during their own times of crisis and confusion. 

Through these themes of identity, empathy, and optimism, Merwin's work reflects a journey still unfolding.