brainbleach needed...

[gayathri]

Because my brain hurts from yet another dark and horrid poem from poets.org - you tell me why modern american poets are depressing and apparently know my dreams? Because beyond its false advertisement in the title, "this is a wonderful poem"
is almost exactly a recurring nightmare I have where nothing I do ends up with a happy ending for me, whether its walking past it, running away, attacking it...

In an attempt to exorcise this brainbleachworthy vision out of my head, I looked up Hafiz: 

At This Party

I don't want to be the only one here
Telling all the secrets -

Filling up all the bowls at this party,
Taking all the laughs.

I would like you
To start putting things on the table
That can also feed the soul
The way I do.

That way
We can invite

A hell of a lot more
Friends.

From: http://www.astrodreamadvisor.com/Hafiz.html

lil_brown_bat: "Buttering the Sky" made me think of you. :) 

Comments

[rhiannonstone.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, I've never read "This is a wonderful poem" as depressing. Terrifying, yes, but the terror of being confronted with a story-child (or other creative endeavor) I'm afraid to birth because I know it will be hard and scary and it will hurt and I might fail. But the last line--"Now, what do you want to do about it?"--feels like an inspirational challenge to me, and I'm left feeling ready to meet it, sure that when I do there will be a happy ending. It's a poem of hope, not despair for me.

"At this party" is delightful! Thank you for linking to him, everything on that page makes me smile in one way or another.

[gayathri.livejournal.com]

Its not depressing, its terrifying and angering - especially coupled with the recurring nightmare where faced with a choice that has no correct answer. Failure is not a problem, but never having a chance at success? Actually having _no_ choice at all? That's a problem.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

Mmm. In that case, maybe the problem is with your definition of "success"? Are you still clinging to the dream of a perfect, flawless, effortless life (like, being the princess in the Disney castle), and believing that anything else is a poor second?

[gayathri.livejournal.com]

leading it back to the recurring nightmare - "success" would be defined by getting past the thing, and not dying. In my recurring dream, there was never any success there, every choice still led to my falling off a cliff and dying. The poem brought up that nightmare very vividly.... so I'm reading a lot of the recurring dream in that poem.

The other thing is that I'm a pretty stubborn girl - a challenge like, "what are you going to do about it" makes me say, "I dont want to play YOUR game!Pbbth!" I never did dares, or handled challenges from others well.