Yahoo Lifestyle MARINA on Exposing the 'Shadowy Areas' of Herself in New Poetry Book — Which Marks the End of 'Difficult Era' (Exclusive)
'Eat the World: a Collection of Poems by Marina Diamandis' is out now
Brendan Walter
MARINAMARINA released her first-ever poetry book, Eat the World, on Oct. 29
In the book, the singer-songwriter delves deep into subjects of trauma and coming of age
She opens up to PEOPLE about healing after an eating disorder, which many of her readers resonate with
In 2022, MARINA decided to take a slight detour from her usual songwriting to write poetry. What she found was that the lack of structure opened doors to darkest parts of herself.
On Tuesday, Oct. 29, MARINA released her first-ever poetry book titled Eat the World via Penguin Random House. In the book, MARINA delves deep into personal topics like trauma, love, eating disorders and her youth. Ultimately, she hopes that it can bring a sense of belonging to her readers.
"The way that our world has changed with tech and social media, we've been pushed to be a little more disconnected from each other and also ourselves because we're so focused on the images that we put out about ourselves," MARINA, 39, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
"This book is very raw and honest and magnifies the parts of myself that I probably hide a lot of," she continues. "So I really hope that it fills in those gaps with people, that it's OK to have these shadowy areas of ourselves that perhaps need integrating instead of suppressing and hiding."
Putting something so vulnerable out there for people to read was intimidating for MARINA at first. Once she set off on her book tour, however, she found that people really resonated with her experiences.
"There's a shared humanity in so many of these issues," she says. "I also know that a lot of pop artists don't talk about them because we are so image-focused, but really we are all flawed human beings who struggle day-to-day with different things at different times in our lives."
One of the main topics people are identifying with is her journey with an eating disorder. And though MARINA feels far removed from that period in her life, she understands "how difficult it can be for people suffering."
"I think for me, one of the main ways out of it was focusing on not so much the fact that... it's not about wanting to be thin. That's the surface layer issue," she says. "But underneath that, there's usually self-worth issues or self-esteem issues that are creating these needs to control or change the way that we look. So it's often the behaviors masking a much deeper issue."
Ultimately, MARINA realized that by focusing on strengthening "the internal parts of yourself" has an effect on "external behaviors."
In the poetry book, MARINA also opens up about the societal expectation for women to have children. At this time in her life, she has no desire for kids — and she's grateful to have the freedom and space to make that decision.
Penguin Random House
Eat the World"Around 35, I really challenged myself about it and thought carefully about it for a couple of years. And then I kind of gave myself the space and freedom to just feel the way that I felt, which is that I don't want to have kids," she shares. "I just don't have the bandwidth in me and that that's OK because I have other things that I feel are more exciting to me in this lifetime."
She adds, "Once I made that decision or allowed myself that space, everything cleared and I feel aligned and I can now just enjoy my life. But I also always give myself the space to change my mind if I want."
MARINA's still open to what life has to offer, including meeting someone with children one day and becoming a stepmom.
"I'd be the one who brings a latte to the kids in a glamorous outfit," she quips. "I feel very at peace with that decision. I think it's something important to talk about because I want to give young women, or women my age, the freedom to choose."
Reflecting on the overall writing process, MARINA says that "Cocoon" was the last poem she wrote — and it turned out to be "the most important."
"It just really caps off or encapsulated this whole chapter of my life. It's the ending step into moving into this new chapter as this new version of myself. It's the end of a very difficult era," she says.
Fittingly, MARINA celebrated her 39th birthday on Oct. 10 and reflected on the past year, which taught her that "giving back to yourself equally in the way that you give to others is really important so that you're drawing from a full cup."
"For the next year, my hope would be lots more connection and enriching connections. I have such good people in my life now, and I know how that feels to have those close relationships — because I think for a long time that I was kind of lacking," she adds. "So just more of that and more of these types of events where we talk about very human topics that allow me to step outside of my role as a pop artist."
Eat the World is out now.
