In this creative Hack, Javier Rhoden shares lines from his poetry that covers domestic relationships, friendships, childhood trauma, fear, and abuse. Rhoden's work uncovers difficult expressions that will stimulate new perspectives toward courage and higher self-esteem.

Anxiety torments you for years, leaving a saturation in tastelessness.

You remain paralyzed without new perspectives to ponder, with nothing left to do but disgorge them from inner oblivion, only to wander off to the backyard of corpses, ready to dig up pain preserved from being buried long ago.

Altschmerz is a compound noun meaning 'old pain.'

This is a sensitive but tough collection of poetry. Do you have what it takes to grow in perseverance?