deepundergroundpoetry.com
importance of the domestic in gothic fiction
more than you'd think
there's nothing scarier
than the dinner table
or a living room
where someone died
(my great-grandmother
in the 1930s
crashed through the floor
while bringing in tea
she was pregnant
and both passed away
when infection set in
with only pre-war medicine
to keep the lasting light at bay)
think on families
with wicked patriarchs
clustered 'round mahogany
while soup is ladled out
a storm outside the tall windows
but whether set
in European castles or
a farmhouse in Texas
regardless if
the wicked patriarch
is Count Olaf
or Eustice Ray
the nightmare's in
the fingers of the past
brushing their icy joints
against walls and faces
there's nothing scarier
than the dinner table
or a living room
where someone died
(my great-grandmother
in the 1930s
crashed through the floor
while bringing in tea
she was pregnant
and both passed away
when infection set in
with only pre-war medicine
to keep the lasting light at bay)
think on families
with wicked patriarchs
clustered 'round mahogany
while soup is ladled out
a storm outside the tall windows
but whether set
in European castles or
a farmhouse in Texas
regardless if
the wicked patriarch
is Count Olaf
or Eustice Ray
the nightmare's in
the fingers of the past
brushing their icy joints
against walls and faces
Published 21st Aug 2021
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likes 5
reading list entries 2
comments 6
reads 171
Commenting Preference:
The author encourages honest critique.
21st Aug 2021 4:23pm
Great reflection on history, I took notes and will continue to search gothic fiction. Hugs and peace, O
21st Aug 2021 4:24pm
good morning dearest Jack this makes me think of the new It movie
where this young girl is sitting chatting with a kindly old lady
and suddenly the clock ticking gets louder and her friendly smile turns into fangs...
such a tragic happening but yes they do have those kind of fingers
those sunlit rooms turned horror story...
great write...
where this young girl is sitting chatting with a kindly old lady
and suddenly the clock ticking gets louder and her friendly smile turns into fangs...
such a tragic happening but yes they do have those kind of fingers
those sunlit rooms turned horror story...
great write...
What tragic imagery. But the poem itself is indicative of your unique style of entwining history with emotion, Jack. You do this beautifully regardless of genre.
22nd Aug 2021 1:10am
Really enjoy this poem--
The topic is great. As a southerner, we inherited the gothic tradition. It's sometimes overlooked, but the southeast US cultivated a lot of British culture--horse racing, the teaching of Queen's English (my mountain folk grandmother taught in a 1 room schoolhouse), the chivalric code, and yes, the gothic, in Faulkner, Lee, O'Conner, Capote.
I also enjoy the skill with meter and line. Those are handled very well.
The clarity of the language--immediate, purposeful writing.
The great writing about the grandmother & child's demise--well executed.
Honest critique: for all the things I enjoy, it leaves me un-fulfilled. The poem argues that the power of the gothic is in the "fingers of the past ... brushing against...walls and faces," yet nowhere in the poem is this shown or brought out...
I feel like the "heart," resides in the grandmother's story, or the table itself, so when you get to the "end" and make the statement about the past & so on, it feels like a bait-and-switch, or un-earned, or something else.
There's so much here I admire, I'd keep working on it, following the places in the poem where the energy is.
LIKE!
The topic is great. As a southerner, we inherited the gothic tradition. It's sometimes overlooked, but the southeast US cultivated a lot of British culture--horse racing, the teaching of Queen's English (my mountain folk grandmother taught in a 1 room schoolhouse), the chivalric code, and yes, the gothic, in Faulkner, Lee, O'Conner, Capote.
I also enjoy the skill with meter and line. Those are handled very well.
The clarity of the language--immediate, purposeful writing.
The great writing about the grandmother & child's demise--well executed.
Honest critique: for all the things I enjoy, it leaves me un-fulfilled. The poem argues that the power of the gothic is in the "fingers of the past ... brushing against...walls and faces," yet nowhere in the poem is this shown or brought out...
I feel like the "heart," resides in the grandmother's story, or the table itself, so when you get to the "end" and make the statement about the past & so on, it feels like a bait-and-switch, or un-earned, or something else.
There's so much here I admire, I'd keep working on it, following the places in the poem where the energy is.
LIKE!
22nd Aug 2021 4:17am
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful commentary. I agree with you that the poem feels a mite unfinished. My original intention was to split it into two parts with the second being a ghost story about my great-grandmother. I couldn’t find the words at the time, but may do soon.
Jack, take the 1st stanza off and put it at the end. I think it will read better leading off with your grandmother's story. Remove those parenthesis.
You can add an "I" to "think on families ...." to make it all work.
You can add an "I" to "think on families ...." to make it all work.
