This is a submission for Poetry Jam's prompt So How Do You Feel? It is concerned with the relationship between intangibles like an emotion and a tangible descriptor such as a colour.
When you are young
and darkness comes,
it dominates your mind.
I don't remember fear,
not real fear. Never
did I need a night light lit
or anything like that,
but I recall anxiety
which spread in time
from darkness to
the colour black.
So much that I have
undertaken since,
in terms of art,religion,
poetry must owe its birth
to trying to reverse
that state. Like blowing
on a fire to see it flare,
to see the embers, black
and burning still, fall back.
And yet I think, the close
association is intact. Black
represents anxiety - and
as for many others, speaks
of a depression. Even,
dare I say, that black dog
or the dark night of the soul.
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14 comments:
Interesting stuff. I don't think of black in that way at all. Although I am rather scared of the dark, I do enjoy the really dark night with a myriad of bright stars and a total stillness. I wonder just how many different takes one could get for black, Dave - it must mean so many different things to so many people. Good poem.
nice man...when you speak of poetry ther ein the middle i get this...writing has been a great therapy to me in processing my emotions...some i post and others is hold dear...
Interesting to think about the relationships between 'fear' and 'anxiety' and 'depression.' I think that poetry helps with all three and definitely think of black as a color of depression. Though sometimes, for me, grey is the color of depression....like an endless succession of cloudy days!
I like how you used the color black here. Feeling this way can seem overwhelming, and I think you captured that here.
The darkness may be the natural state, and bringing the light of thought and creativity to it can help us find our way. Much light a flashlight on a dark night
Enjoyed the way you brought 'night light' into the poem .. I never needed one either. :)
I toured a home last week ... one of the bedrooms was painted black. Wonder what that says about the owner? I hope he considers his bedroom a refuge, a safe place .. not a place for hiding.
Very dark but enjoyable all the same :-).
Oh, say it! The black dog must have his day!
I like the way you assigned the color black and darkness to these feelings--yet developed it in a creative way. I used darkness to represent negative things in my poem as well, and I didn't realize it until I read yours! Thanks.
Dark nights can be intimidating,Dave! I see that! But it can spawn ideas that bright lights detest. 'Black is beautiful',once before! What's happened to it, I wonder!
Hank
A really interesting take. I hadn't realised until I read this that for me black is soft and comforting and it is a particular shade of blue which signifies both anxiety and depression.
A quickie with thanks to everyone
A bit short on time again today - a hospital having made a complete pig's ear of their appointments and swallowed up what remained of the day!
A big hi and welcome to my newcomers and thank you to all for your visits and comments.
I found the latter thoroughly fascinating, but incredibly difficult to sum up - as difficult as I found the original prompt, in fact.
Should we rather embrace the dark, the black, and appreciate it or try to understand it rather than trying to push it away? I don't know.
Even anxiety can be diminished by a light - or at least in my case it is. I often start drowning in that black fear only to realize that there's nothing really there once I've turned the light on & LOOKED at it.
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