I’d sought quiet in this wood
pursuing poetry to no good
in solitude with my thought
trepidation is — verse is not
the darkness of this night
shrouds choking close n’tight
cold as an old tundra witch
charred as slag-sooted pitch
this foreboding icy moon
stabs a sliver of chilling gloom
through the heart of the trees
where I tremble on my knees
trapped in unanchored dreams
my forsaken soul now screams
lost in loosed untethered fears
I am adrift upon my tears
unmoored from space and time
here my soul can find no rhyme
in confusion I’m immersed
no poem of worth can here be versed
the devil has finaly had his way
no lofty verse will rise this day
no poem to save my weary soul
no clever words to pay my toll
engulfed by this emptiness
rigored by my loneliness
this void smuggles away my breath
I pray for sleep — deep as death
*
rob kistner © 2021
Poetry at: earthweal
“I am adrift upon my tears.” A beauty of a poem, Rob, and so sad, those dark nights.
Thank you Sherry.
Oh gosh – the dark night of the soul writ for us all to acknowledge and say, yes I too have known this. I hope you find your way to the light in 2022. Take care. – Suzanne
Thank you Suzanne. This was a bit of truth a bit of fiction.
Woah, Rob: you went to a dark place with this, but it’s simply bewitching verse:
‘cold as an old tundra witch
charred as slag-sooted pitch’
like an incantation!
I am beginning to enjoy dark poems Ingrid, more and more, as my congestive heart failure carries down down through the stages of severity. I feel I am thumbing my nose in the face of death! He might take me, but with my sense of dark rebellion. Sorry if it gets intense at times!
Rob, as I read this it had a dark dream quality about it. I could visualize it and I have been to dark places in my own dreams. Those unanchored dreams get carried away with the wind and you never know what shore you will finally land on.
trapped in unanchored dreams
my forsaken soul now screams
lost in loosed untethered fears
I am adrift upon my tears
I think sometimes, one must confront darkness to find the light. Happy New Year, my friend!
Be Well….
No darkness there is no light True — one can not exist without the other. To experience light you must experience dark. It is only at far ends of these spectrums where miracles happen.
Rob, I just read a poem written by a mother who lost her son and it occurs to me you might like to read it. Hope it helps, though not much can help when one bears such a loss.
https://ahundredfallingveils.com/2021/12/31/december-31/
I will give it a read, thank uou Sherry… 🙂
Poetry beats a verbal path through the dark wood but it’s not much help against pathological states and stone-cold depressions. That’s what meds and therapy and AA are for. But it can keep the high notes sounding while we’re trudging through the dark. Be well.
This is a dark night of the soul well beyond potions, practices, or rituals Brandan. This is grappling with the ultimate darkness.