Creativity Can't Make Up For Depression
Creativity cannot make up for depression
which it attempts to cure,
it can’t replace it with the kind of supersession
that made spurious lure
of Christianity when it induced some Jews
to make up for their loss
of their identity, condemned, they thought, to lose
unless they chose the cross.
No, creativity provides a transient high,
and then becomes a wraith,
for those who’re so depressed they find they cannot fly,
because they’ve lost their faith
in their ability to reproduce success,
which if it is not con-
stantly repeated is a letter whose address
appears to be, “Dear John.”
Inspired by an article (“In Praise of the Crack-U: A novelist peers through darkness to find glittering gems in writing and art”) , by the South African-born novelist Jeanette Winterson, lesbian lover of Julian Barnes’s widow, Pat Kavanagh, in the October 17,2009 WSJ (A report about her lesbian relations includes the information: Blessed with good looks that led many to compare her to Katharine Hepburn, she secured a nonspeaking part in Under Milk Wood. “I never got paid, but I did get to snog Richard Burton, ” she said) . Winterson writes:
The stories are well known; Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear and went mad. Sylvia Plath gassed herself. Anne Sexton committed suicide. Emily Dickinson was manic-depressive. Virginia Woolf worked through alternating bouts of madness and depression for most of her life. The mad, bad and dangerous wild boys of high art and popular culture make great copy—whether it's Caravaggio on the run for murder after one of his rages, or Allen Ginsberg, naked and drunk, howling through Manhattan. The women—Plath, Frida Kahlo, Maria Callas, Janis Joplin—imploding like dark stars, are the stuff of obsession…. Longing is painful. Every work of art is an attempt to bring into being the object of loss. The pictures, the music, the poems and the performances are an intense engagement with loss. While one is in the act of making, one is not in loss, and one has meaning. The fierce crashes that happen to many creative people when a piece of work is done (read Hemingway on this) come out of the sense that however good the work, it has not answered the loss. The strange thing about creative work is that it can have enormous value for others while its maker is left ravaged. The ancient Greeks understood this as the price of an encounter with a god—the divine forces enter the human and use him or her as an instrument, only to be ultimately destroyed. But I do not believe that creativity is destructive or divine. I believe it is the part of us that gives shape and voice to our innermost reality. This is frightening. Encounters with the real, in particular what we really feel, are something we generally try to avoid. Art mediates the encounter, allowing us to get nearer to our longing and our loss, to risk more, to dare more. Yet for the maker, the exposure is not mediated; it is total and terrifying. That is why so many creative people cut themselves off from their own experience, using drugs or drink or sex or shipwreck to avoid absolute exposure to the pain of creativity. When Whitman turned to face his dark angel, to wrestle with himself, he was acknowledging his own loss, his own longing, his own unstaunched wound.
10/18/09
poem by Gershon Hepner
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Related quotes
Loss Of...
Loss it seems is the worst kind of sorrow
Loss of dreams, the dreams of tomorrow
Loss of the moments you two should have shared
Loss of opportunities to show her you cared
Loss of the memories you both could have created
Loss of the romance once intense as you dated
Loss of a kiss, caress, or embrace
Loss of that special feeling no one else can replace
Loss of a look, the twinkle in her eye
Loss of the touch as you pass each other by
Loss of a future, from a past of regret
Loss of a last chance, how many do you get
Loss of a promise you never meant to break
Loss of two hearts that forever will ache
(2012)
poem by Michael Ernst
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Kinds of Loss
There's kinds of loss that can bum you out
The loss of a game
You lost your way
Losing your favorite pin
This can make you pout
But without a doubt
It is not a real big thing
The kind of loss that can make you shout
The loss of your job
The loss your car
When you could not pay
It left you confused
Feeling slightly defused
But then you can re-group
Then there a loss, that cuts deep within
My maternal rights that I tried not to win
So stupid to give up such a gift
To watch my boys grow, live with the man
that I've tried so much to get away
No school papers to hang on my frig
No more practices to run to at night
Now I that I am a part-time Mom
And try and do it all on my weekends
poem by Pookey's Poems
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Not All Losses Are Bad
Loss, most of the time bad. On occasion, great!
SOME TIME A LOSS CAN BE GOOD!
Can loss sometime be happy. You bet! Ask some
divorced couples.
The other guy had a loss and I won!
My ex had a loss, of most of our assets. Yes,
you guessed it, I got 'em!
Insurance companies, now there's some, that
many take great delight,
when they suffer a loss.
When the tax man does an audit, if they have
a loss, we have a win! (best kind of loss)
The person who brings suite against you,
suffers a loss. (Ain't that sweet?)
A hostile mother-in-law, suffers a loss,
when her daughter gets divorced.
When one experiences a weight loss.
Now that's something that would make
millions of people happy!
When the owner of your building, is deemed
to be, 'rent controlled, ' it brings a loss
to the greedy titleholder. (break out the champagne)
When the neighbor you hadn't spoken to for years,
has a loss, of the keys, to her car.
When the kid, who keeps running over your lawn,
with his bike, has a loss, of the two wheel monster.
When you child, who you love, but drives you nuts
with their loud music, has a broken stereo,
and a loss of music. (They're unhappy. You're ecstatic.)
When one has a loss of sleep, because their spouse
was amorous all night. (Ahhhh, the good old days.)
When your in-laws, prepare to come to your house,
for the first time, and have a loss of directions.
When your spouse, who cremates every barbecue
they ever handled, has a loss of the coals.
(Actually you hid them.)
When the know-it-all comes to your home, and
can't say a word, because they had a loss of
their dentures.
Remember...If you have a loss, sometime,
the loss is good!
l Losses Are Sometime Good...
Loss, most of the time bad. On occasion, great!
SOME TIME A LOSS CAN BE GOOD!
Can loss sometime be happy. You bet! Ask some
divorced couples.
The other guy had a loss and I won!
My ex had a loss, of most of our assets. Yes,
you guessed it, I got 'em!
Insurance companies, now there's some, that
many take great delight,
when they suffer a loss.
When the tax man does an audit, if they have
a loss, we have a win! (best kind of loss)
The person who brings suite against you,
suffers a loss. (Ain't that sweet?)
A hostile mother-in-law, suffers a loss,
when her daughter gets divorced.
When one experiences a weight loss.
Now that's something that would make
millions of people happy!
When the owner of your building, is deemed
to be, 'rent controlled, ' it brings a loss
to the greedy titleholder. (break out the champagne)
When the neighbor you hadn't spoken to for years,
has a loss, of the keys, to her car.
When the kid, who keeps running over your lawn,
with his bike, has a loss, of the two wheel monster.
When you child, who you love, but drives you nuts
with their loud music, has a broken stereo,
and a loss of music. (They're unhappy. You're ecstatic.)
When one has a loss of sleep, because their spouse
was amorous all night. (Ahhhh, the good old days.)
When your in-laws, prepare to come to your house,
for the first time, and have a loss of directions.
When your spouse, who cremates every barbecue
they ever handled, has a loss of the coals.
(Actually you hid them.)
When the know-it-all comes to your home, and
can't say a word, because they had a loss of
their dentures.
Remember...If you have a loss, sometime,
the loss is good!
What is loss?
I resent
What loss represents
I resent
What great loss presents
So what’s the fuss about loss?
Waiting!
Debating!
Contemplating!
What is loss?
Something you care about
Taken away from you by force
Creating total unforgivable chaos
Thinking!
Blinking!
Seeking!
What is loss
It is a minus instead of a plus
Hence the unmistakable fuss
Death and sickness build up great grief
Loss brings despair instead of relief
And in loss itself I have no belief
I resent
What loss represents
I resent
What great loss presents
Loss! An inequitable cause
Thrown on you without a toss
So you become very cross
Because in your life you realize, you are never the only boss!
Copyright 2006 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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Its A Big Loss
Rip
its a big loss...
the plane crash was a tragdy
but your death was a big catastrophic
a professor in mathmatic
that was you Hon. saitoti
its a big loss...
a great mathmatician
a dedicted politician
you solved our security like magician
its a big loss...
you left behind a legacy
many will emurate you like the water in the sea
you were a great seed
to many all over the world
its a big loss...
you fought alshaabab
withou fear nor disturb
you worked together like pal
we wont give up your work on the millitia
its a big loss...
a big gain in heaven
a big loss to kenyan
poem by Fantiz Evans
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Losing My Minority
To lose one’s minority
Is not a bad thing.
With the loss of minority
come untold opportunities,
The magic of the number Eighteen.
With the loss of minority
Comes the lifting of the chains
That we once called childhood.
With the loss of minority
Comes college, then work,
Credit cards and Ebay.
With the loss of minority
Come parties and booze,
Familiar faces in the evening news.
With the loss of minority
Comes the search for a partner –
The thorn-lined chatrooms on rose-colored sites.
With the loss of minority
Comes the loss of virginity
And the loss of your sanity.
To lose one’s minority
is not a bad thing.
Young girl, welcome to your future.
poem by Marin Tsuikata
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My Loss
Watching as you drive away
Speed away so fast
Knowing something's different now
That ending was our last
Nothing describes the emptiness filled inside
Take me to that place
Where everything's fine
And not a worry in mind
Sweeter to the taste
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i'd do it again
To be with you feels like the right thing
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i try to pretend
That nothing's changed for all that you bring
For all that you bring
Simple is so complex now
So I understand
That I never thought that happy could be distraught
Help me if you can
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i'd do it again
To be with you feels like the right thing
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i try to pretend
That nothing's changed for all that you bring
Well I know I'm wrong
And you know I'm here
I don't want to let you disapear
What am I worth when your eyes were
Begging me in fear
I only want to see you again
And repair the wounds that brought me in
I don't want to think it won't happen again
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i'd do it again
To be with you feels like the right thing
This is my loss (my loss)
I did it wrong and i try to pretend
That nothing's changed for all that you bring
For all that you bring
For all that you bring
For all you bring
song performed by by 1208
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lost In A House Fire
The loss of a child
The loss of a wife
Tis all the same as the loss of your own life
The loss of house and all that's inside
Tis all the same as if your whole soul had died
The loss of temper
Loss of faith and self-control
Tis all the same as knowing you have now grown very old
The loss of all memory when all is becalmed
When you find that your wife and child all safe and unharmed
poem by Neil Milliner
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Loss Lost in Thought
Loss of love from your partner in soul:
A.k.a. jilt;
Loss of love from your bygones of souls:
A.k.a. mourning;
Loss of love which came from a dearth
Of love through rescinding love:
A.k.a. hatred;
Love to science in analysis be
Secretion of oxytocin in association
With an entity that leads to bonding - so boring:
A.k.a. must all suffer scientific explanation?
Loss of love, a catastrophe, nay!
So love, nurture love, and be loved!
Loss of nature from dear Mother Earth:
A.k.a. destruction;
Loss of greed in material world:
A.k.a. always opportunity for altruism;
Loss of kindness and pity and all:
A.k.a. human nature has dark undertones;
Loss of ego and fire of desire:
A.k.a. loss may be good in consequence;
Loss of responsibility; humility:
A.k.a. loss may be unnerving.
Loss of Homo sapiens:
A.k.a. demise of the flawed primate - pinnacle of Darwinism - equates to
No art; music; poetry; debate, and
Everything innate ornate of human!
So concentrate please, on bliss of this.
Copyright © Mark R Slaughter 2009
poem by Mark R Slaughter
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A loss
Loss of a dream
Loss of a life
Loss of a love
Loss of a path
Loss of a power
This is what I lost,
In this vast world of war.
poem by Austin Courtney
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Opurtunity
Opportunity
Loss it seems is the worst kind of sorrow
Loss of a dream
Loss of a person
But what of the loss of opportunity
Opportunity for a dream
Opportunity for time with a person
Can not having the chance of loss
Be worse than loss itself
More prominent
More painful
An aching sense that if only you’d had the chance
You would at least have memories
Good
Bad
Would it matter as long as you could remember
Loss it seems is the worse kind of sorrow
But worse still is the loss of opportunity
poem by Abigail Hauschild
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Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable
The death of a twelve year old,
Her sister shed tears,
But the body was cold,
Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable.
She felt all had lost hope,
It was her fault,
'I let go the rope! '
Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable.
'I should have pulled her up'
'I lost grip'
'I should'nt have given up! '
Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable.
'You trusted me! '
'And there is no reason....'
' No you shouldn't have, see? '
Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable.
'No! It's not your fault! ',
Said her sister,
Who lay dead in the vault,
Loss Unbearable, Loss Irrepearable.
poem by Ulveena Aitzaz
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Life is Loss
I have given this one most thought.
To learn this lesson you may not want.
But everybody knows and everybody felt
Some have seen more with the hand they've been dealt.
But I’m going to remind you because it seems.
That change is the worst enemy that deems
The fear that you have for the future
Is the loss that you will lose there?
But life is loss but not all loss comes
In the form of death or separation from
Two loves who no longer give
Each other their own life to live.
Because sometimes people have to walk away
From the hurt that they feel each day.
Sometimes people have to let go of the feelings
And move on with the day to day dealings.
Or never find themselves without remorse
And never having any recourse
Of the life that is loss and always having to carry
Those people that which they should bury.
poem by Black Rabbit
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Success And Loss
SUCCESS AND LOSS
What’s success without loss?
You can’t win every toss!
It’s something that makes you strive-
It’s what makes you actually feel alive!
How come will you adore the bliss?
When you can’t differentiate with loss and malice?
True happiness comes, in dreams you believe!
Only then even after defeat, can you achieve!
For the plant which knows how to bend,
After the storm, opportunities extend!
Its then when you realize the talent,
To a negligent life, it’s not equivalent!
You work hard, you have a goal,
The determination plays a vital role.
Positivity flows, you finally gather moss.
Could it be possible, if there was no loss?
poem by HudaM DeGratePoet
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As life nears
It is life cycle
We are helpless and unable
No say in ultimate end
To live with the world and befriend
Good work may be paid as life nears
Its destination and leaves only tears behind
Nothing to miss about your loss as it was open and frank
Everybody is in grief but pray the God and thank
You might have been good to people
You might proved your worth and be able
To deliver the work as promised
It might be hailed as achievement before you ceased
Not all get everything as desired in life
The life is full of challenge and also of strife
How you could do it is another aspect
This has only lead you to earn respect
Today people are laying wreath
It is great loss to them over your death
Not that there were no people of your caliber
But you were great success and hailed as climber
You were so close to their heart
This was no less achievement as an art
To get acclaim from people is a rare feat
People have to make great sacrifice and sweat
I evaluate this scene as one of most deserving and commendable
Your dreams have been realized and proved as sustainable
So far they were considered as unachievable and beyond human reach
You made it as reality as no one had promised as such
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Loss Entities In Dreams Original 01 26 2011
LOSS ENTITIES IN DREAMS:
Original 01 26 2011
Loss existentialities in dreams faceoff…
Artless object repellant pits dreamer
And the dream face encounter duel
Contentiously sweating loss as the
Peal of desire’s risk to make love
Unprotected –to engage the pipe of
Dreams in sibylline ecstasies induced
By metal and liquid juices that love
Should ferment too for the good of
Finite suspiciousness artless dreams
Desperate for good learn to know inner
Intent and pictured face consistency
Spiritual faces pit the conscience state
Growing out of gardens of object literacy
Weed grows perfectly out of inedible
Content into the toxic climate dwarfing
The slow flowering growth and ambrosia
Of aerate herbal root veining through
Firmament fueled refinement into
Ignitable lightning fired to feed life her
Gift of spiritual strength –so she shares.
Lee Mack copyright 2009. ISBN # 0615318347. Do not reproduce without permissions.
poem by Lee B. Mack
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Loss, Strain & Butterflies
he got bad when she got mad
He lowered it one more time and she got even
No one heard a single word
But as the clock ticked from next door i could hear her breathing
I said "good morning mr. sun, now i would like you to meet my friend mr. bomb
(he has a house made out of butterflies)"
Well i can't sleep sometimes but i've been told
It's a lonely condition called growing old.
Let me stumble sometimes...
I'm looking for someone to cling to, yeah...
So what you think about that?
This time, well it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies,
And then it comes right down to me.
Hello, have you been alright?
Did you find a piece of something
Wrapped around the light side of your life
To make you feel better?
Did you get out with your sanity?
Did you save a little something for the people in need?
Did you know with the rain in your pockets, you can change the weather?
I'm looking for something to cling to, yeah
Girl, what you think about that?
Well this time, yeah it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies
Then it comes right down to me.
Well this time, this time, yeah it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies.
Hey yeah yeah, come on down to me...
Is this just the total for the wages of our sins?
Have you made yourself a victim in a game that you can't win?
And are we caving in?
Does it all begin with loss and strain and butterflies?
Does it come right down to me, anymore?
Yeah this time, maybe, does it all come down
To loss and strain and butterflies?
Hey yeah yeah, well...
Come on down to me.
song performed by by Matchbox 20
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Loss, Strain Butterflies
He got bad when she got mad
He lowered it one more time and she got even
No one heard a single word
But as the clock ticked from next door I could hear her breathing
I said good morning mr. sun, now I would like you to meet my friend mr. bomb
(he has a house made out of butterflies)
Well I cant sleep sometimes but Ive been told
Its a lonely condition called growing old.
Let me stumble sometimes...
Im looking for someone to cling to, yeah...
So what you think about that?
This time, well it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies,
And then it comes right down to me.
Hello, have you been alright?
Did you find a piece of something
Wrapped around the light side of your life
To make you feel better?
Did you get out with your sanity?
Did you save a little something for the people in need?
Did you know with the rain in your pockets, you can change the weather?
Im looking for something to cling to, yeah
Girl, what you think about that?
Well this time, yeah it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies
Then it comes right down to me.
Well this time, this time, yeah it all comes down
To loss and strain and butterflies.
Hey yeah yeah, come on down to me...
Is this just the total for the wages of our sins?
Have you made yourself a victim in a game that you cant win?
And are we caving in?
Does it all begin with loss and strain and butterflies?
Does it come right down to me, anymore?
Yeah this time, maybe, does it all come down
To loss and strain and butterflies?
Hey yeah yeah, well...
Come on down to me.
song performed by by Matchbox 20
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Certain Loss
to compromise
one suffers a certain loss
I've lost a face once, and then a mouth
and then my feet
they cut me to invisible pieces
until what is left of me
is my voice
the one that talks to you
now
but this one will not be speaking
for any compromise
it will speak about
the truth
the loss, that certain loss
that you can only see
in my words
here, they who are with me in the house
where only a part of me thrives
cannot ascertain it
the smile of the lips are still there
but there is nothing there anymore
about myself.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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