Following a series of public relations gaffes in which Sinead O'Connor refused to allow the national anthem to precede her performance in New Jersey, boycotted the Grammy Awards because she disagreed with its "values," and ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on "Saturday Night Live," she published a 106-line poem in several Irish newspapers that declared, "My name is Sinead O'Connor, I am learning to love myself." She then asserts, "I know I've been angry, but I am full of love really." The composition goes on to insist that O'Connor does not deserve "to be treated like dirt... I deserve to be listened to. I am a member of the human race." Her biggest problem, we learn, is low self-esteem: "If only I can love myself, if only I can fight off the voices of my parents and gather a sense of self-esteem," then she could become the apple of the public's eye. "Here's how you could help," she says. "Stop hurting me, please, saying mean things about me."

O'Connor commented on the Pope-picture controversy: "If I were a young man and I was on TV saying these things, I would not be as brutalized."

†