🦋 I think about suicide all the time because it's the only hope I have of getting people interested in the things I've created. No one appreciates the things I feel most proud of.
This is an anti-suicide song that starts out sounding like a pro-suicide song.
(I have removed some of my poems about suicide.)
The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering,
And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.
Emily Dickinson
The Heart Asks Pleasure First
In this poem, it is the heart (the id) that asks
but it's the mind (the ego) that negotiates a way to satisfy it.
The first request comes from Eros (Kāma-taṇhā)
but all of the rest come from Thanatos (Vibhava-taṇhā).
For it is Eros that seeks pleasure and Thanatos that seeks to avoid pain.
The whole thing is kind of like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in reverse
though it's about desires rather than needs. (difficult to distinguish)
As we progress through the poem, the heart settles for less and less.
(This regression is somewhat similar to my own “Eros and Lethe”.)
If I can't have pleasure, then may I at least have release from pain?
If I can't have that, then may I have pain killers? (The Waters of Lethe)
If I can't have those, then may I just go to sleep? (Oblivion)
And finally, if there is no other way to escape my suffering,
may I be permitted to die?
(When I sleep without dreams, I'll no longer pine for Eden.)
To be or not to be. It is still the question.
IT IS ALWAYS THE QUESTION.
A people’s heart can be found in their poetic words. In history men and women have stood firmly upon their soapboxes and street corners, rallying the deepest beliefs of people to rise up and be heard. The poetrypages.com has offered that voice a new
This book represents a thirty-day period of my poetry journal. Each poem addresses
the dominant thoughts occupying my mind during the early morning hours of a given
day.
“The woman or man who is a poet, or fiction writer, or playwright, or all of these, is engaged constantly in a jazz ballet of vocabularies, passions, genders, histories, perspectives, death, love, and life. The music of revelation announces itself to
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(I have removed some of my poems about suicide.)
The heart asks pleasure first,
And then, excuse from pain;
And then, those little anodynes
That deaden suffering,
And then, to go to sleep;
And then, if it should be
The will of its Inquisitor,
The liberty to die.
Emily Dickinson
The Heart Asks Pleasure First
In this poem, it is the heart (the id) that asks
but it's the mind (the ego) that negotiates a way to satisfy it.
The first request comes from Eros (Kāma-taṇhā)
but all of the rest come from Thanatos (Vibhava-taṇhā).
For it is Eros that seeks pleasure and Thanatos that seeks to avoid pain.
The whole thing is kind of like Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in reverse
though it's about desires rather than needs. (difficult to distinguish)
As we progress through the poem, the heart settles for less and less.
(This regression is somewhat similar to my own “Eros and Lethe”.)
If I can't have pleasure, then may I at least have release from pain?
If I can't have that, then may I have pain killers? (The Waters of Lethe)
If I can't have those, then may I just go to sleep? (Oblivion)
And finally, if there is no other way to escape my suffering,
may I be permitted to die?
(When I sleep without dreams, I'll no longer pine for Eden.)
To be or not to be. It is still the question.
IT IS ALWAYS THE QUESTION.