Patricia Clarkson's Bookshelf
PAGE 5
The Complete Poem
By Anne Sexton
When you're in college, you go either to Plath or to Sexton. A friend and I would read Sexton for hours. I would always wonder, How does this middle-aged woman understand me? All of this angst? One poem I always go back to is "Praying to Big Jack." It's for her godchild, 6-year-old Ruthie, who has a brain tumor. Big Jack is God, and Sexton writes, "Banish Ruth… / and you banish all the world." It destroys me. That's the power she has over me. Stumbling on a writer when you're young can change the way you think and feel. Anne Sexton has informed my acting in ways I don't always realize. She put me in touch with an emotional life at a young age. She brought things to the surface—my own fears and rants. I feel as though I'm always playing Anne Sexton in one form or another—in Pieces of April, The Station Agent, my Six Feet Under character.
By Anne Sexton
When you're in college, you go either to Plath or to Sexton. A friend and I would read Sexton for hours. I would always wonder, How does this middle-aged woman understand me? All of this angst? One poem I always go back to is "Praying to Big Jack." It's for her godchild, 6-year-old Ruthie, who has a brain tumor. Big Jack is God, and Sexton writes, "Banish Ruth… / and you banish all the world." It destroys me. That's the power she has over me. Stumbling on a writer when you're young can change the way you think and feel. Anne Sexton has informed my acting in ways I don't always realize. She put me in touch with an emotional life at a young age. She brought things to the surface—my own fears and rants. I feel as though I'm always playing Anne Sexton in one form or another—in Pieces of April, The Station Agent, my Six Feet Under character.