Because it is bitter...

I was digging around in an old poetry folder to find a selection of favorite poems to present in class and I came across this little gem. I have always liked this one. It reminds me a bit of Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. It is dark, but it is a comforting sort of darkness. I feel a kind of sympathy for this creature; perhaps the pity Frodo spoke of. It... eases me. I don't feel more bitter, but less, for reading this poem. It's like, I can know the bitterness in my own heart--even taste it--and it's okay. It's okay. The Gollum-creature--that Jungian-Shadow of us all--holds our heart in his hands and consumes it, so we don't have to.



In the Desert
~Stephen Crane

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.

I said: "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."