Are you a dark poet?

1. 62

   know oneposted 13 years ago

   Well, I may have just found my "Go To" starter list of poets on the Hub ;-)
   
   I'd say mine can be cynical, scathing, dark, blunt, honest... and yet some (count 'em on just one hand!) are quite nice really. It just depends whether I can override the pull towards the shadows and the dark corners.

   replyreport
2. 0

   ssbrookhaven65posted 13 years ago

   My poetry is very dark.

   replyreport
3. 60

   Jaggedfrostposted 13 years ago

   Sometimes I am not sure of the virtues engendered by being considered a dark poet.  I seem to be catching a lot of those comments recently and I am only aware that my works of late have had a definitely serious note and tenor about them.

   replyreport
4. 0

   china manposted 13 years ago

   Dark poetry is a mainly product of a fractured self - having found a happy and fulfilling place in life I find it really hard to write introverted stuff about the bad experiences of life.

   replyreport
5. 60

   Jaggedfrostposted 13 years ago

   China, I am glad that you have found that capability.  Being incapable of ditching ones' past isn't any fun.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      china manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I would say that this is the biggest problem in society generally, the piling up of one damage onto another until it is too hard to get out from under.  Then damaged people run the media and religion reinforcing the idea that the general state of psychosis is the norm.

      replyreport
      1. 60

         Jaggedfrostposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Interesting indeed when human tragedy statistically skews the norm but was there ever a norm anyhow or a concealment and ruse that has been unsealed and aired?  For better or for worse we may not be any nicer now then when we thought ourself nicer then just more awake to our abnormality in normality.

         replyreport
         1. 0

            china manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            That is the western issue of trying to return home which is impossible (the reason religion is attractive, by offering a mirage of 'home') .  The way back - to less complex and damaged - is forward by following some personal path in the way of Buddhism and a few other enlightened ways.
            
            Writing dark stuff is in some ways rollng around in the rotten guts of a damaged self.

            replyreport
            1. 60

               couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Excellently stated.  We can never go backwards.

               replyreport
6. 60

   The Demon Writerposted 13 years ago

   I would probably be considered a dark poet/write. I personally would like to think of myself as 'phsycological' writer. I just joined this site and I only have one Hub called 'The Demon Writer'. Read it and you will understand me.

   replyreport
7. 40

   janessecretposted 13 years ago

   I think all poetry is dark, I remember my English teacher telling us that almost all poetry is about death in one way or the other . . .

   replyreport
   1. 60

      couturepopcafeposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I thought about your comment and tried to find what I thought was my happiest poem.  I actually came up with several, too many to post as comment, and honestly couldn't see any deep death meaning behind them.  Just proving that those who teach academia are often as clueless as any other.

      replyreport
8. 0

   ralwusposted 13 years ago

   Is this considered Dark?
   
   Dust of My Dust
   
   O dust of my dust,
   child who died as soon as
   you split the matrix,
   dead with my dead fathers.
   You never tasted breath though
   you tried so hard in vain
   with a wee heart that beat within
   your mother's womb, but stopped
   when you left us for perchance
   a better place.
   Ah, so the better, my child.
   for you never traveled
   the long way of drudgery
   when wee finger blurs under the tears
   that fall upon the first wound,
   or when abandoned by a friend
   for another, and illness, and
   the smell of death by the bed;
   the loss of a loved one;
   or shame, or poverty;
   the old friend sorrow as childhood ends;
   the blind eye of nature that gives you
   drink from the heady cup of love.
   Lost child, death may be better than life.
   
   Ralwus

   replyreport
   1. 81

      The Suburban Poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Ralwas,
      
      Depends on your point of view I guess on that one... there are some people who don't want to hear that message even though it was so elegant and poignant... I wrote one about a fetus once that has never seen the light of day because I didn't want the abuse.... it's a hard topic but is there darkness when you shine a light?

      replyreport
   2. 0

      china manposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I would say this is melancholy but not dark - it reasons around the loss and looks for some kind of balance.

      replyreport
9. 0

   ralwusposted 13 years ago

   You should maybe publish it, but I understand. Death is scary to many but it too is life. Losing any child is so hard, even stillborn. Thanks Suburban.

   replyreport
   1. 81

      The Suburban Poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Stillborn... man I need to expand my assumptions...  great poem regardless....

      replyreport
      1. 81

         The Suburban Poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Ralwus... I wanted to also say I'm sorry that you had to endure that kind of pain. I don't think it's dark to write about something that happened to you... maybe it's dark to some people but life is life. Dark might be just a general poem that projects moroseness or only seeing the negatives of life. It's a tough thing to define. I don't write "happy" all the time; but I have to guard against trying to go deep when I write because I feel the allure of dark words. For me personally it becomes pretentious because I really have no reason to be dark. I have my problems but they are manageable and in some cases self-inflicted so I have to regulate myself with what I say.

         replyreport
10. 60

    mylife=adventureposted 13 years ago

    The darkest poets are the most thoughtful poets they can dig deep into their souls and find their pain and misfortunes and turn them into something beautiful that can spark others to feel connected to the same such writing and feelings.
    
    Thats just one ex junkie hippie nerds opinion though ha =].

    replyreport
11. 0

    ralwusposted 13 years ago

    Rev. Archibald Bean
    
    If you in the village of Shreve think my work as good,
    who closed the sex shop, stopped gambling
    at John Stibb's place, and got that whore
    Polly Brinkerman hauled before Judge White
    in my crusade to purge the county of sin and vice;
    why do you let the good deacon's daughter Julie,
    and that worthless Amish son of Jonas Beechy
    nightly use my grave for un unholy bed?
    
    Ralwus

    replyreport
12. 0

    ahorsebackposted 13 years ago

    Are dark poets always as
    unsettled as I.
    Once I had the chance
    and lost it.
    and now.....now.
    The darkness of the night
    skies give way to stars.
    And the wolf moon dances for
    pennies at the circus......
    Yes....Yes I am dark
    and getting darker still.
    Are you too afraid
    to look me in
    the eyes?

    replyreport
13. 60

    Jaggedfrostposted 13 years ago

    oh no! Some one close this thread or my darkness might start showing noooooooo..... tooo late!  YOU ALL ARE GOING TO DIE!.... eventually lol.

    replyreport
14. 79

    2besureposted 13 years ago

    Yes, until I got help...
    
    I'd like to dye just someday soon and rest through eternity;
    A peaceful death, not violent, like drowning in the sea.
    
    To die would be a pleasure, when heartache and pain are gone,
    
    For never again would I have to cry, for the things I've done that were wrong.
    
    Fourth Grade.  Wow!

    replyreport