TheBanyanTree: My dark side

[David Seaman]

As I sat reviewing the small collection of work in my lap, it dawned on me 
that the majority of my poetry was pretty dark. I searched and searched 
the pile. My reading had already taken place, but there was another go 
around as there was time to kill.

Comedy can be dark. Though that is hardly the case in reverse. Raised 
my hand again, picked up the mic, stood back on the stage, read aloud the 
prose with the least amount of 'shadow' in my pile. I had to pause halfway 
through to let the laughter subside.

I learned that day the difference between a rant posted to Livejournal
from my cubicle on a boring Tuesday afternoon, and a connection with an
audience. Tag: poetry. Click; print. Someone I met told me that they
saved my poems. Another said I was intimidating. What ever that meant.

I hate my writing though. It isn't that good. I have some friends whom I
admire, and they write poetry, so I gave it a crack. Years ago. Never
serious. Just playing around over the years. Year after year. Okay,
decades.

My poetry began to be an outlet for my spirituality. That is how I
rationalized my work. Might be where all the darkness came from too. Work
now, that is what I call it. Having a *work* published didn't mean all
that much. The mic is what called to me. My heroes held mics. Thumbing 
through my work I asked myself, "What would Maslowska do?"

The laughter subsided and I was able to finish. I walked out of the art
center a bit of a different person. Darkness holds the most fragile of
dreams.

-- 

Dave
http://www.livejournal.com/users/joad77/