The irresistibility of darkness


You lure me into ever growing darkness
like into a wood that ever grows more fearsome
as we tread on paths to nowhere
without even having any hunch of where we're going,
no one knows, and all we know is darkness
that keeps falling and curtailing us,
inveighing us in imperceptible secret mysteries
of love and evil and perdition, –
all we know, is that this road is leading forward,
after all, but whether it's a tunnel or an abyss,
a blind alley or a path to progress and release,
we cannot know. We can but keep on going on
into the darkness, thickening and ever growing
more menacing and fearful and destructive
in its black addiction of the final vicious circle.




Poetry by Christian Lanciai The PoetBay support member heart!
Read 651 times
star mini Editors' choice
Written on 2011-02-14 at 23:16

dott Save as a bookmark (requires login)
dott Write a comment (requires login)
dott Send as email (requires login)
dott Print text


Rex Panthera
Sin City-esque in a way. Well written and intriguing to the last sentence.
2011-02-17


Eli The PoetBay support member heart!
I've felt compelled to comment on your writing for a while, always reading, always getting a sense of "happiness" somehow written as perhaps an excuse for what is wished for, rather than the actual truth behind the realm of experience which inspires your words, although they are words that represent your style which I appreciate and respect.

So I was surprised that you write of darkness, although with that I'm also relieved, because to always tell of love, light, princesses, and so on, only gives one side of the story, and "the story" - in my eyes at least - has more to say than that. "The irresistibility of darkness" shows the other side.

To comment on the text itself, I'm puzzled with how the end of the first sentence clashes with the second. The final words of sentence one reveals to us that "we cannot know.", and although sentence two begins with the complimentary line of, "We can but..." the remainder of that passage then seems contradictory in the amount of detail - and certainty - that it holds. Moreover, it moves from unpredictability to predictability with a very menacing wave.

I should probably go further with this - as I read the text again.

I'm drawn to the idea of death being the theme here, and I guess this comment is motivated because I see your text portraying death as some kind of demon, and while I can understand why this is so, I'd be more inclined to recognise the journey towards death - as you have done twice in the text; "a path to progress" and "mysteries of love" - as not "menacing" at all, and certainly not ending with any kind of "vicious circle". This essentially leaves me wondering why you mentioned any positives at all.

Perhaps what I am saying is that the poem is imbalanced as well as perplexing in that it tries to send a good vibe to the reader only briefly within the wrapping of darkness you have so eloquently described, and I wonder if it could have more impact - and therefore become an improved piece of writing - if it just stuck to the darkness.
2011-02-17


Editorial Team The PoetBay support member heart!
This text has been chosen to be featured on the front page of PoetBay. Thank you for posting it on our poetry web site.
2011-02-15


jenks The PoetBay support member heart!
and light
2011-02-15