is it intentional to make the poem really thin as well? cos that's a really clever use of layout and also, it kinda looks like a female figure, don't you think, of course, a really thin one at that

i sometimes forget to eat, or go through a non-hungry stage, at which point my mum thinks i'm turning anorexic

--
<sub>"A' right you bastards! Come an' have a go if you think you're hard enough!"-Spoony/Darren Morfitt <3

'What are you going to do?'
'Well, I'm going to beat you about the head until you stop moving and -God willing- see the error of your ways.'</sub>

This is very intersting. I love that you did this. I think that it could be percieved either as empathy or stupidity just depending on how you decide to look at it. The idea is wonderful none the less. [ I've been toying with the idea of a vow of silence for a year ] even though its not something I think I would be succesful with. The whole process is something i've been playing with in my head. I guess its sort of the same concept. <3 great piece. Thank you for posting it!

--
<3:[Zombie]:<3

Wanting to experience suffering can be a form of empathy, it depends on your motivation really. I mean if you're doing it to better understand the situation so you can help people, that's a form of empathy I'd say.

This is a nice little intriguing piece all told

--
Remember: Don't steal or the GNU will eat you!

"Your dreams of crippled halls
And endless screams of silent schemes" - Used with kind permission of ~fly-high-butterfly14

I really enjoy this poem. Starvation has a lot of connotations. To do it to yourself for vanity is self-harm. To do it to yourself for a cause in protest is a noble thing. To do so so that someone who needs it more can eat is also noble. To do so for the sake so simply knowing how it feels...that one I'm not so sure about. Really thoughtful piece, even in its brevity.

--
My flame-throwing, acid-spitting, whale-eating monkey-cat-dinosaur shall be named Mr. Snuggles!

I'll stop writing when they finally chop my hands off!...yeah, you heard me!

...CRACK POCKET

I think it is self harm tbh, and I find it very hard to see it as a form of empathy, perhaps because I was bulimic for well, I can't really say how many years cos I'm not convinced its totally over yet. And from someone in that position and recovering, I think anyone who has enough control to start and stop just like that shouldn't abuse it really.


Well written though. Love the structure, very clever.

--
I found a hair the length of yours on my sleeve
I wound it round and round my finger so tight
It turned to purple and a pulse formed inside

What people decide to do with themselves is really no business of mine. Though I would a liar if I said I didn't worry, and wouldn't try to help.
This applies only to the people close to me of course. That's how all things are.
Self-harm hmmm...most definitely. But as I said before, it's really no business of mine. If there's one thing I know it's how frustrating it is to have people butt in on things like this. I'd prefer not to embarrass myself.
But that's just me.

--
"You're welcome to believe that the world is a nice, logical, rational, safe place... You'll be wrong, but that hasn't stopped anyone else who thinks the same way."

Only if she were giving all her food to the poor would it be okay. If she was just randomly starving herself to feel what it felt like... -shakes head-

To be honest, most people with access to food probably don't have the will to hold out for long without food.

--
Out here in the fields
I fight for my meals
I get my back into my living
I don't need to fight
To prove I'm right
I don't need to be forgiven

~Baba O'Riley- The Who

_{Member~ =SongofthePoets, *TheWritersMeow, *BleedingHeartsPoetry}

i don't think it's self-harm necessarily, but there's something self-destructive about it, and it's definitely strange. in my opinion though some people might see such an "emphatic" act as good i personally think it's wasteful and pointless. the last thing the world needs is more people who are starving.

of course i did deal with an eating disorder for some time, but i never starved myself or even came close. from that perspective i'd say no one should ever starve by their on choice. if their circumstance, be they physical or mental, force them into it then god help them.

--
Go Vegan
[link]

it IS empathy and ISN'T self-harm, but i think that's only becasue of the motivation. which in this circumstance is a bit screwed in the first place, becasue just to know how something feels isn't helping that situation.

i think that made sense.

--
"I will be standing behind you, breathing down your neck, until you agree to bear my children."

and no, that isn't a quote.

Empathy... I know you will get what I say when it's all about perception. lol.

If you read it with the words in parentheses, it may be considered empathy... or perhaps a twisted form of masochism or perhaps even something as grand as a form of protest.
Without those words... it has a bit of an uneven flow, but kinda seems [to me, at least] that it's a bit of a spite kinda thing. Like... 'she' is saying she knows what it's like to go without food and is almost mocking others, saying they can't get through what she has in the past.


Strictly speaking, it is a form of self-harm. Anorexia.
But with a somewhat more loose interpretation of it... it possibly wouldn't in the sense that it is not consciously to harm oneself so much as to know and understand what others go through... which, in itself, seems contradictory because the harm is what others go through... eh.

Always a confusing subject to discuss.

--
One Game Leads To Another,
In The Process, We Can All Agree,
That Death Surrounds Us,
As Far As The Eye Can See.

-"Death Surrounds Us", ch. 3.
By P.T.I.