The Week In Grey.

(2/4/11 - 2/10/11)

A Dark Poetry Review.

Welcome again, dark poets and other souls wandering

the dark corners of the net. It has been a slow

and long week at DarkPoetry.com. Whether it's been the

daunting arctic blasts that have swept the entire country,

or just a simple dry spell, sorting through the works list

has been some what of a challenge lately. However, as

many member's of the community will attest, much

of the wonder and excitement surrounding the site is

" pan handling" for works and new favorite poets.

Although the pickin's have been slim, I've put together a

very diverse Top 10 that should hold you over until the

gold standard rises back to it's usual level.

+--+

The Top 10

1. "Silent overture, prelude to a temptress rising"- Leith Plunkett

2. "Broken glass"-Lavenia

3. "Hope Thief"- Ainsof

4. "rimjob and reindeer"- theDefiantWon

5. "where"- saintedmad

6. ". . crypt.ography. ."- NikesRain

7. "Screaming Wonderful"- Drea

8. "Time"- Poe Etiquette

9. "brackets like boomerangs and aderation for sobering sirens"-AtlaS

10. "Untitled VIII"- Ascian

+--+

The Grey Limelight.

-jon Lyndon-

DarkPoetry.com swarms with dozens of new members and poems each and every day, but no more than a dozen of those spirits who have lingered since near the time of its inception have maintained such a high level of influence, respect and mysticism as jon Lyndon.

jon Lyndon, formerly and prominently known as Bakkhus Unbound, is a poetic powerhouse that has caught the eye of nearly every other notable dark poet at one point in time, and has landed himself on too many member's bookmarks to count

during his near 13 year membership. Lyndon's work definitely leans

towards the more complex and free verse side of poetry.

His poems are stacked high with unique imagery, alluring allusions, and everything in between. Given the complexity and skill level of his work, you must take time to savor and digest the words. There is no way anyone could skim over his work and get even an ounce of the satisfaction than comes from taking the time to wrap your mind around it and let all the imagery and metaphors sink in.

To jon Lyndon's potential new audience I would like to offer the

following advice. Either be a diversely cultured reader or prepare to

spend a lot of time in the dictionary and on wikipedia. His work is loaded with allusion, which means he makes a lot of references to other literature and or artist's work.

No matter which category you fall into I can assure you

that you will find something within his massive porfolio

that will leave your jaw dropped on the floor in awe.

jon Lyndon, old spirit, old favorite.

Enjoy.

+--+

The Rising Dark.

In the past few weeks I haven't noticed too much out of the

ordinary in the way of new members, however that doesn't

mean they aren't there, they just may not have posted yet.

I would like however to shed a little light on some members

who have joined within the past few months that I feel are

noteworthy and you might find a bit interesting too.

Poe Etiquette-

More of a traditionally versed poet with a heavy emphasis

of meter, rhyme and structure within his work.

rswhitelock-

A very abstract poet who seems to write in a trend to his

own current events as well as DarkPoetry.com events. He's

stirred the pot a bit and has earned himself a small following

already.

+--+

Well, I hope I have given you some valuable highlights and opened

your eyes to some awesome new poems and artists, lets hope next

week brings us a more plentiful array of new work. Regardless

of whatever happens I'll be here same day (Thursday), same place.

Next week will feature my first interview with one of the

most cherished and respected poets at DarkPoetry.com. She

has one of the interesting stories and some of the most awesome

poetry the site has to offer. I hope you'll stop by and take a peek

to find out who I am so excited to share a more in depth moment with.

I'm Zabz and this concludes this Week In Grey.

Be well and stay warm!

The Week In Grey.

(A Dark Poetry Review.)

Well met poets, and readers alike.

This will be a weekly blog segment pertaining to my

favorite online community, DarkPoetry.com.

First, a brief intro to who I am and why I bother

to take the time to write these blogs and reviews.

My name is Matt, but please call me Zabz. I have been a member of

DarkPoetry.com since Jan. 2004, and have been very active

for about 5 1/2 years of my membership. I've seen many

great underground poets come and go, some both great poets

and great people. I've posted under a few alias' and have made

a handful of valuble relationships via poetry on this site. Each week

I hope to bring some insight into some of the more notable

highlights in poetry, graphic art and new members in the community.

DarkPoetry.com has served as a haven and sacred ground to thousands

of poets and troubled souls over it's 10 year + existence.

Despite my opinionated views of certian styles of poetry and poets within

the community, I assure you that I will remain objective in my criticisms

and reviews.

Each week I plan to do the following with this segment:

+ A top 10 work list by the week.

+ A spotlight review on one artist week each, and a full on interview once a month.

+ Highlight any notable new member poets.

+--+

Let's get to it.

The Top 10

1."the number of birds along my spine"-saintedmad

2. "the strangled silver light of morning"-snowdrop

3."Untitled"-jonLyndon

4."Trash"-Ainsof

5."night song"-blue

6."skeleton key"-kinkifrog

7."ache"-Miss Dahlia

8."Her Soul Moves The Moon"-carlosjackal

9."tonight-"-Circe

10. "Persimmon.Tears"-Inara

+--+

The Grey Limelight.

-saintedmad-

One of my very favorite poets/artists on DarkPoetry.com

This total package artist needs no introduction. She single handedly

carries the weight of a million drowned souls within her words and

beautifully bleak photography. Like many other poets in the community

saintedmad peaks during certain times of the year, so if you are a winter

bound soul, you will surely find some weight in her other worldly words.

Her style of formating both her words and works alone is noteworthy

enough, let alone stacking it thick with metaphor and an ambient voice

that carries whoever reads her poetry into a place both cold and

comforting.

Despite her insanely prolific posting, she maintains an outstanding

standard of quality within her works, both poetic and graphic.

saintedmad

An quick pick that WILL NOT leave you disappointed.

+--+

That concludes this Week In Grey, be well and happy reading.

-Zabz

ruin

by Charles Bukowski
 

William Saroyan said, "I ruined my 
life by marrying the same woman 
twice." 

there will always be something 
to ruin our lives, 
William, 
it all depends upon 
what or which 
finds us 
first, 
we are always 
ripe and ready 
to be 
taken. 

ruined lives are 
normal 
both for the wise 
and 
others. 

it is only when 
that life 
ruined
becomes ours 
we realize 
then 
that the suicides, the 
drunkards, the mad, the 
jailed, the dopers 
and etc. etc. 
are just as common 
a part of existence 
as the gladiola, the 
rainbow 
the 
hurricane 
and nothing 
left 
on the kitchen 
shelf.

where without whom - octavio paz

There is not
A single soul among the trees
And I
Don't know where I've gone.


i've just recently started reading paz and i find him lovely. this poem especially. although short, its brevity helps to convey the loneliness of the piece. i hear its even better in spanish. check it out.

Dark Tube

An Interview With a Lusty Spike

“SpikedwithLust” originally joined DP when she was 15 at a friend’s recommendation. We know her as “Lusty”, “Spikey”, “Lust O Spike” and a few other names.



Opklot: What sign are you?

SpikedwithLust: Libra, the sign of balance … supposedly I’m gregarious.

Opklot: Tell me about some of your influences.

SpikedwithLust: I really got into Bukowski this past summer. His stuff is kinda’ stark and dark, but really about the real things in love.

I had two great English teachers in high school that helped me "perfect" my writing …9th grade and 12 grade, the beginning and the end. They taught me to be succinct.

My 9th grade English teacher gave me a greater appreciation for grammar and sentence structure all that good stuff….and my 12th grade teacher taught me to be analytical of works. Both of these tools I use when I write.



Opklot: You have a few writes on the Dark Poetry site that I really wanted to ask about.

SpikedwithLust: Ok.

Opklot: What time period did you create the work titled “Asphalt Memories”?

SpikedwithLust: I was on winter break during my freshman year of college, so I was 18. It’s about a friend and all the things I admire about her and sort of see in myself. She’s the one, who really got me writing and I’m sort of in awe of her, but she always seemed to have this...space I guess you could call it between her and other people, I just wanted to capture some of that. It’s more like we were the same in a way, the sort of space we had between ourselves and other people, but it was just more apparent with her. I could see some of myself in her.


Opklot: It almost appears as though you also saw a few things that you wish you had, but don’t?

SpikedwithLust: There is level of admiration for this person, I mean her work is outstanding and she's pretty outstanding herself. In her isolation, if that’s what you want to call it, she became more wanted. You know people always want what they can’t have and are always curious about the unknown. I think that distance she had gave her this quality.


Opklot: "all i have are asphalt memories and the crumpled dragonflies she left in my hand" ....What does this mean?

SpikedwithLust: well those were two of her former DP (Dark Poetry) names
“asphalt memories” and “crumpled dragonflies”. I wanted it to be about her. One of my friends said it sounded as if she had written it, but I’m not sure it’s my usual style. She always wrote about the faerie and gods and things like that. It’s just who she is.

Opklot: Do you not see her much anymore? ....as you wrote ... "and sadly
i’ve lost touch with my youth
she doesn't come around as often"

SpikedwithLust: At that point in time, I didn’t. We had sort of drifted apart, especially with me going off to college, but we're pretty good friends again now.

Opklot: That is great! ....sounds like a nice friend to have.... she sounds like a very special person.

SpikedwithLust: She’s awesome…. same one that got me to join DP.

Opklot: Well, if she reads this, I must say “thank you” to her, because I personally think that I would have missed a great author if you hadn’t come around!

Opklot: Tell me about your write called “courting ghosts”.

SpikedwithLust: I wrote this because for some reason the phrase courting ghosts popped in my head. It’s weird the things that pop into my head. The phrase just sort of reminded me of sad lovers. I felt bad writing it though, because I feel like I always write about the same things.


Opklot: "waiflike, i dance
between the cracks in our foundation,
sway in the spaces amongst the has-been and the never-was."
Tell me about this part.

SpikedwithLust: In my mind, I think of a waif as a thin person, so, someone small enough to fit in those minute spaces. It’s usually a collection of small things that cause a relationship to fail, like the small cracks in the foundation of a building. Just one won’t cause it to tumble.


Opklot: What does the part about the "sandbox love affair" mean?

SpikedwithLust: I thought about the simplicity and the brevity of childhood romances. I just pictured a little boy and a little girl at the playground, playing in the sandbox. I feel as if the world of a child is quite small in that way; confined to the sandbox.

Opklot: Tell me about the part that reads "like we end when the sun goes down."

SpikedwithLust: That refers to two things I guess. Going back to the sandbox …. When we're children, it’s as if the world doesn’t exist after dark. When it gets dark, its time to go in, play time is over. The second part has to do with the shadows. Shadows are formed when an object obstructs the light. So, in true darkness there are no shadows.


Opklot: Why did you rewrite “courting ghosts”?

SpikedwithLust: I was unsatisfied with the first version. It didn’t flow the way I wanted. It seemed to jump to the last two stanzas in a weird way and the ending seemed abrupt to me, almost like it was unfinished, so, I felt like I needed to add some smoother transitions.

Opklot: how much does your write titled “theophilus” have to do with the biblical aspect?

SpikedwithLust: I was reading C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”, when the inspiration for the poem hit. I kept repeating to myself for a couple days "im searching for god in lowly places" and writing it over and over. I felt kinda crazy. I decided that it was gonna have something to do with god, but I didn’t know it would become as extended as it did. It’s kind of a long piece for me.


Opklot: Tell me what you meant by "they say, the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us",
You start it off with "they say". That’s a bit less emphatic than the people who proclaim it. Tell me about it.


SpikedwithLust: I quoted from the bible and I guess it’s kind of important that this part of the poem came somewhere in the middle of my writing the piece. I guess in a way its a part of my style. I often start poems in a similar way. I wanted to connect it more. Once I decided I was going to have all biblical/religious type metaphors and images, it was important to me to have something from the bible. I could have easily started at "tonight" but I also admire poets who use allusions.

There are plenty of ways one could rearrange the piece, I suppose. I just felt it was an appropriate opening; it sort of sets in place the whole notion of divinity of the flesh. I guess I also like the idea of Jesus as the word too…. divine flesh...divine words. I had a talk awhile back about divine love and what it is to love god in a romantic sense.


Opklot: You go on to say "so tonight, i am searching for god in lowly places," ....that was the reference to C S Lewis? ......were you actually doing a soul search at that time?

SpikedwithLust: I’m glad you ask, because I really was. I read “Mere Christianity” two summers before and it really changed me. It made Christianity seem so simple to me; something so complex made so simple. I love Lewis forever for that.


Opklot: A lot of people know Lewis for "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe", but it seems as though only a handful know of "Mere Christianity". People usually skip this piece. Why do you think that is; and further, what was your actual prompt to read it in the first place?

SpikedwithLust: I actually never read any of the “Narnia” books. I think a lot of people today just don’t know about Lewis’s adult works. The children books are what he's known for. I just recently learned that Lewis wrote poetry. I decided to read it because a friend of mine read a group of Lewis’s adult literature for his senior project and presented to our class. I found it interesting, plus, I’m just curious.


Opklot: There appears to be a bit of sensuality thrown into this piece. Is that right?

SpikedwithLust: Yeah, it is a bit sexual … lol …it’s kinda’ cloaked.


To catch the rest of “SpikedwithLust” and her writing, you’ll need to go to Dark Poetry and start reading or she might be found in the chat area also. There are also forums that you can join to discuss in depth topics.

buddy wakefield - hurling crowbirds at mockingbars

 

 *the good stuff starts around 2:15*

 "i could have swore you sung me a love song back there...and that you meant it..."

if you have ever encountered me in chatbox, you will know how much i sing this man's praises.  this is by far his most touching work to me.  saw him perform it and i shed a tear.  please watch, please discover more awesomeness like this for yourself :)