‘It is easy to see why each man
kills the things he loves…
To try to know a living being
is to try to suck the life out of that being…
The desirous consciousness,
the spirit, is a vampire.’*
Doomed lovers, how we cling to tragedy
in the end all love leads to death
veil of discovery and joy obscure the picture
transfixing us with embroidered beauty
until the fatal bite, irrevocable action
transmutes veil to funereal shroud
This pain arrives surreptitiously
thieving the interminable hours
pleading, screaming, weeping
my ineffectual gesticulations
elaborate disguise hides death as savior
skull covered, knotted flesh from fallacy
Seductive advances, potent virility
pathogenic bacteria reproducing
induce consumptive weakening
as I consider, your breath upon my face
skin aflame with feverish desire
will they burn my heart when I am gone?
* D.H. Lawrence
Linked to Blue Flute’s prompt on Vampires at dVerse Poets Pub: http://dversepoets.com/2012/04/28/poetics-vampires/
Chromapoetica 
Anna- I reallly like this one… especially-
Doomed lovers, how we cling to tragedy
in the end all love leads to death
… and the last three lines.
Thank you Laurie! The last line is an allusion to Mercy Brown.
Pheew…. Doomed love does feel a bit as if it sucks us dry too. Powerful imagery
Thank you, I was reading an article about the archetype of the vampire and thought this might be an interesting angle after seeing this quote from D.H. Lawrence. I took the title from Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
This is very good. Definitely a more reflective//philosophically inspired take on the vampire. Great job Anna. Thanks
Thank you Fred, I’m not good with gore and so I thought I’d take a different path. I’ll be by again to listen to your recording.
whew…smoking….you achieve your wicked flow…but i did not have to look up a single word…ha…i really like hte close on this anna..will they burn my heart….death finds us all, hopefully not just because of love…smiles…but even then i guess would have to ask if it was worth it….
Glad I didn’t send you to the dictionary tonight :)! Yes, that last line came first, which rarely happens but I went with it. Thanks for ‘smoking’, makes me feel like I did something well.
There’s a desire to control-to have–that can prove fatal to love, but also irresistible to lovers. A difficult impulse. Well done–great choice of quote by Lawrence. K.
Thanks, I was happy I came across it yesterday and thought I’d handle a less gory, less straightforward poem better.
Intense, stream-of-conscious write that still holds together as a narrative. Powerful ending, liked the DH Lawrence quote
Thank you, I am very ill today so it probably came out more stream-of-conscious than intended. The whole pain stanza describes my day. Also, no one seems to have made the connection between tuberculosis and the myth of vampirism so I guess I needed to outline that metaphor more clearly. I often want to accomplish too much in one poem.
Fantabulous! I’m loving these writes. Hope you feel better soon though 😦
Thank you, I’ve never been in so much agony in my life. It was a bit shocking. Pain killers are finally doing their job but I’m hazy and my spelling has gone mushy :).
You had me from “Doomed love”. In writing this, I sense a departure from your usual style, here you range over the more emotional, lingering over desire and pain; but still retain the literary allusions and symbology that mark your other writing. Brilliant.
Thank you Samuel. I rarely write of love so I think I tend to get more emotive when I do, it’s the opera singer in me. I find symbolism and allusion find their way into everything I write because so much feels connected to me. I can never seem to disentangle things, evidence of the ecologist in me. I always appreciate your visits.
It’s not that bad; love, Not all operas are tragedies. Love can exist without one draining life from the other, in a fairy tale maybe… Very excellent write, A differeent side of you. I emjoyed much.
Well, I wasn’t going to write a happily ever after vampire poem, even my optimism isn’t that blind :). Thank you Henry, and for encouraging me not to worry in reply to my comment on your poem earlier in the week. I am always concerned about offending in this virtual space that I don’t always navigate well.
ha…this glows rather dark in its intensity…nice..and i understood every word on first read…smiles.. like it a lot anna and esp. love that you end it with this question…will they burn my heart when I am gone?… very cool
Yes, dark seemed appropriate for the prompt and funny, Brian said something similar about the diction :). Glad you enjoyed it, the end was my favorite part too.
I feel the intensity of the feverish desire and the doomed love shadows ~
Your piece resonates with me today ~
Thank you Heaven, wonderful to hear it resonated.
This is intense, powerful. Love this, especially: “elaborate disguise hides death”
Yes, a key part of seduction’s veil. ‘Intense and powerful’ is a cherished compliment, thank you.
This carries us into a realm of eros that I think few are willing to go or admit exists. Your honesty in recognizing how much of our love is contingent and rests on chance factors is refreshing. And couching your awareness in the motifs of the vampire legend is quite effective, bringing to light how that myth really relates to everyday realities of human possibility/actuality, frailty/desire for transcendence.
Yes, that’s it precisely, as the vampire archetype is the shadow of the redemptive archetype this is the shadow side of love. The entwining of consumption with the vampire myth, a disease most often spread between family members, loved ones, also connects us to that shadow side of love where the victim of the disease also unwittingly gives it to those who care for them. Since they had no real understanding of how the disease is expelled in infectious aerosol droplets they took to more drastic measures like exhuming the bodies of family members, labeling them vampires and burning their hearts to feed to other sick members. Metaphorically the family or the lover can function as a vampire if dysfunction, or the shadow side, goes unchecked. Thank you for your close reading and fascinating comment.
You’re a brilliant writer and this poem is testimony to that. I love your development of the dark side. I think some things called love do indeed have a dark side. Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope you feel better.
Thank you Myrna how kind of you to say :).
Nothing quite says love like a good vampire bite.
You have a way with words and lighting up the darker side.
Ha, thank you.
wow. you really pulled this off so wonderfully, great music in your words. the ending is so powerful, a chilling image and question. and i don’t know why, but this line just grabbed me, “pathogenic bacteria reproducing” … as always, you are amazing.
Yay, I love that line (and you’re the first to mention it), so wonderful to hear it worked with musicality no less. Yes, the end came first and the rest flowed from it. Thank you!
This is such an accomplished work. I am quite in awe!
Thank you Lydia for your kind compliment. With NaPoWriMo finally over I’m looking forward to getting more time between creating work and posting it :).
Hi, sorry for the delayed response – just having to get food on the table! Nice to see how you explore some of the emotional landscape that creates the myth
I hear you, thank you for coming by to read and comment.