The Black Sea
Joe Mcguire 2002 (Glasgow)
I wander, ablaze, through this black sea
— in these waves, I am disgraced.
I am wary of my sight, lest I glimpse what lurks below.
So I cower away, in the little corners of this ocean.
I do not know whether this fear, this dread, is borne of that
which is revealing,
or of that
which is to be revealed.
And I know not whether these two are distinct.
The dark,
as it is commanded, purged, spills secrets in the light.
The light,
as it is commanded, purged, spills secrets in the dark.
Perhaps, they read from the same book,
and tell the same story,
with a slight sardonic smile.
Yet, I feel as though there are no secrets here.
I feel there is nothing to tell, and there is nothing to know.
I fear to give a voice to this light, so I scavenge this sea,
in search of a suffocating shadow;
in search of a merciful extinguish.
I am a faint siren in the deep.
I struggle for air.
About this poem
This is a poem I wrote a while back: In this, I’m talking of the contrast, as I see it, between my self, and the external world, be it, everything that is not me, that is unbeknownst to me. I say I am unsure of whether this horror lies in what is being REVEALED — the dark — or what is, itself, performing the REVEALING — the light. I talk of how I do not feel worthy of being here, of existing in this plane, that I am in some sense an invasion, a parasite — I do not want to be found. I talk of the trepidation, the fear, I have of what lurks in this ocean, not knowing what it will mean for me. I can find no distinction in the light and the dark; the known and the unknown. I decide that they are perhaps two sides of the same coin, inseparable. The closing of the poem, I am, in essence, talking of suicide in the face of this. more »
Written on November 21, 2023
Submitted by joemcguire227 on March 27, 2024
- 1:01 min read
- 0 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AX BX C X CX X DEED XAX XB A BX X X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 901 |
Words | 206 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 1, 1, 2, 1, 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 1, 1 |
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"The Black Sea" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 21 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/184739/the-black-sea>.
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