Poems with a Bite Taken Out of Them is a testimony to silent suffering, indoctrination, emergence, and claiming one’s identity, all at a steep cost. Diagnosed with borderline personality disorder in 2020, Singh uses her inherently amplified experiences to create dramatic vignettes of feelings for her pages, to pass on to readers she has never met. This is a story of loss and regrowth, of allowing a mind to change, and of giving oneself apologies that would otherwise not be received.

About the Author

R. Clare Singh is an opera singer by trade, having received her master’s degree from Eastman School of Music. She is of Indian American descent and part of the LGBTQIA+ community—yet raised in a predominantly white and Christian area. Driven by the urge to create and connect, her quest is to remind people how to feel, whether it be through singing, composing, or writing. She lives with her cat Echo in Rochester, New York.