[SlowPoke68]

I find poems I've read stay with me and come back at odd times. Been thinking about this one recently:

"Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell



Especially the line "I myself am hell".

Am I betraying my type?

[ENTPreneur]

Cant say that that one sticks, but I can appreciate poetry and art.... I once heard a 83 year old man read on of his poems about how sweet a miracle every spring blossom were, and how the out-bussed old folk marvelled at this each and every year. His voice cracked with emotion. My eyes teared.

We are not without Feelings just because we do not let them control our actions....:-)

[yesiknowbut]

Are you betraying your type because you appreciate poetry, or because you think that you are hell?

I love poetry, and what I love about a good poem is that it presents ideas, often very succinctly in a few well-chosen words that work on many levels. The very cleverness of that gets me, and I appreciate a good metaphor, too. Pretty true to type, I would think.

We don't have to be scientists and engineers, and we all have feelings that can be moved.

As for whether you are or are not hell.....will leave that up to you ;)

[SlowPoke68]

Are you betraying your type because you appreciate poetry, or because you think that you are hell?

I was trolling a bit.

But anyway, I think that line about "I myself am hell" stays with me because it's a pretty good description. Not that I--personally--am everyone's hell (that would be far too self-flattering), but I think we individually are our own hells. The more I think about it the more I believe the only people who are truly damned are those who can't step outside of themselves.

[YourMom]

i don't appreciate poetry

[ENTPreneur]

I was trolling a bit.

But anyway, I think that line about "I myself am hell" stays with me because it's a pretty good description. Not that I--personally--am everyone's hell (that would be far too self-flattering), but I think we individually are our own hells. The more I think about it the more I believe the only people who are truly damned are those who can't step outside of themselves.

The latest research into what makes us happy points to having "altruistic" interests in matters bigger than oneself.... and involving other persons. But I bet a psychopath or super egoist can have fun enough. Their reward system is probably haywired....

But I have often wondered about the moment of death, time and our views of afterlife. Read up on near-death experiences. If time grows more or less irrelevant during death, and we perhaps create our own heavens or hells in this moment. An interesting philosophical thought.... That would go along with your hell-statement at least..:-)

[Quin Sabe]

I have periods where I love writing and reading poetry.
So we're in the same boat, lol

My favorite is My Mind to me a kingdom is -Sir Edward Dyer

[hystericalglamour]

And I saw it didn't matter
who had loved me or who I loved. I was alone.
The black oily asphalt, the slick beauty
of the Iranian attendant, the thickening
clouds - nothing was mine. And I understood
finally, after a semester of philosophy,
a thousand books of poetry, after death
and childbirth and the startled cries of men
who called out my name as they entered me,
I finally believed I was alone, felt it
in my actual, visceral heart, heard it echo
like a thin bell. And the sounds
came back, the slash of tires
and footsteps, all the delicate cargo
they carried saying thank you
and yes.

Dorianne Laux, from After Twelve Days of Rain

This poem always replays in my mind. ENTP issues perhaps?

[hystericalglamour]

I was trolling a bit.

But anyway, I think that line about "I myself am hell" stays with me because it's a pretty good description. Not that I--personally--am everyone's hell (that would be far too self-flattering), but I think we individually are our own hells. The more I think about it the more I believe the only people who are truly damned are those who can't step outside of themselves.

Are we also our own heaven?

[SlowPoke68]

Are we also our own heaven?

Hey! You got what I was driving at.

No.

I think that's the point of transcendence no matter what revelation or non-revelation one buys into: Heaven, redemption, validation, self-actualization, whatever you want to call it requires humans to exit themselves.

Something I frequently think about.