Whenever folks talk about "Gothic"
Mr. Poe here gets tossed up as
an example.
*I'll bet he gets the giggle shits
at the constant analogies!


ANYWAY.....
This section is about the Gothic~Heart :)

But before I begin,
let me get up on my soapbox for a moment!


[can't find a soapbox in the house]
[gets up on computer chair instead]
[decides this bites the green-weenie]
[sits back down]

Every now & then,
I get these "charming and eloquent"
e-mails from peeps just having
the utter hissy-fits that I'm "daring"
to speak for the "gothic sub-culture".
No, I'm speaking for me, and from much
of the positive feedback the site has so
kindly gotten, I don't think I'm doing
a "dis" to the gothic community.

At least, I earnestly hope not!!!

Maybe they just need something
to kill that bug up their chimmney.

I'll just say this before we proceed~

I am so astounded by the attitude I see
all to often...this "I would'nt join any club who'd
have me as a member" mentality. And I'll explain later
why insisting that we should NOT accept being shoe-boxed
as a "sub-culture". But there appears to be
this strain who revels in wanting the whole world
to shun them and fear and loathe them, even those
who would raise a fist to support them.

Dudes...I have no idea what inner fears you can't deal with
that drive you to make sure everyone hates you,
and by doing so, in your own minds at least,
justify your being at odds with the world...
But if that's all you have to contibute to life,
then stay off my bus....

*wait....I'll take that back.
Don't deprive the rest of us of yourself,
and don't cut yourself off from whatever
we might be able to offer.
I guess we all should be more concerned about
enriching each other's lives.

See...I don't plan out what I'm gonna say
all that much, I tend to wait for when it feels
right, and just start nailing the keyboard.
It may come off Doofey as hell at times,
but you get the real stoopid me this way.

Oh yeah......
I wuz talking about gothic hearts.

Starting with Mr. Poe up yonder, just think of
ALL the "Gothic" influence over the last
several hundred years that the whole of society
embraces and revels in~

Fantastic movies and plays
Gorgeous works of art
Poetry and songs
Awe-inspiring architecture
The finest literary works
Charles Dickens
(yes, Dickens!)
Bach
Handel
Mozart
Opera

*prayer*

I invite you to dig into these areas
and drinky deeply of what they have to offer.
You'll find that much of what has gone before
is so richly entwined in Modern Gothic art and music!

AND having that wealth of history to draw upon,
you will fall in love with all things gothic
to an all new level of embracing.

And it's not "morbid" to carry that over into
our attitude about death. Death and caring for
the dead are so overlain with the above mentioned
areas, how can one not be moved? How can people
invest SO much in funerary rites and angel
monuments - out of love and appreciation for the departed,
and then scowl at us, who cherish and revere such
expressed spiritualty?

You tell me, is this "morbid" or "gothic"....

A few years ago, my wife's grandmother died in the hospital.
We got there after she'd already passed on.
(this thin, sweet, frail little woman)
And they all vacated the room when the man from
the funeral home showed up to move her.
Trouble was, he came alone.

I'm not sure what 'look' was on their faces,
when I said I was going in to help him.

I removed her dentures and packed them.
I helped straighten her gown and move her
onto the pad, then arraigned her limbs, so we could
wrap her into the coverlet.
I helped place her on the roll-out and belt her on.
I drew the final cover for her and helped him
get her on her way.

All this was done tenderly and gently, as one would
carefully handle a new-born baby.

It was the last act of human compassion and kindness
that I could offer her. Somewhere, somehow,
I think she knew of it.

If that appreciation for the reverance of what death is
makes me 'morbid' than I'm proud to be so.
And I think the healthy gothic individual shares
that same farsighted view of death and it's place in life,
dark wings and all.

*I'll finish this the next night, it's late here right now :)

OOOOOkay........
it's Thursday, and I did come back the "next" night
and finish this...and I came to read it over tonight...


..and I see I hit the friggin' "log-out" without saving the file.

If you've been reading along...just shoot me PLEASE!
I'll fix it this weekend (#@#$#$$!!!!)

^ I know how she feels ^

So, here I am back to trying to finish
and it's 1:00 am on a Friday (late) night.

Either real pearls of wisdom are gonna drop....
or the "other" thing!


I think, whatever level or range of Goth/Gothic you
happen to be, you'd not feel drawn to that "label",
or comfortable in claiming that sort of identification,
unless your passions ran in the topics here, at least
in some way.

And trying to describe this here
-unless you naturally know what I'm talking about-
is like standing next to a blind person before an ornate
stained glass window and saying how lovely it is.
How can you make them see the shapes and depths and colors you see
and how and why they are so wonderful.
They can't see thru your eyes,
or, with your heart.

And why a person's heart drives and thrills to
things gothic and dark-is beyond me to explain.
Try giving a universal textbook definition of why
your heart feels love.
No one goes "Eeewwwwww!" if you say you "love to look" at
a red rose, so why the prob's with a black one?
The sense of beauty is just as profound for you,
as it is for the person who likes the red one.
What is so lopsided in trying to get a non-gothic person to
understand, is that you both like the red rose, but they
can't carry that empathetic feeling over to see the black one the same.

I get tons of e-mail asking how to make others understand.
Well....you can see how that ain't gonna happen.
BUT, work on understanding YOUR-self, and once you begin
to understand and appreciate your own feelings,
the consternation of others looses its sting.

A lot of you who come to this site are in High Shool,
I know, because I answer all e-mails and guestbook
entries personally, and we usually chat for a few e-mails.

And you are likely as I was at that age,
a bit shy and VERY introspective,
and scorned for that by people who
just did not see with eyes that looked deeper at life than
three feet from their face.

MY favorite relaxation is to sit
in a darkened room with some candle light,
sip some Stolli-Vanil or Absinthe, and
listen to music. Sometimes Cruxshadows or Rob Zombie,
Often classical or Gregorian Chant by the monks.
What's yours?


ONE of my favorite things is to stroll
the local graveyard, and see not just stones,
but monuments to the dignity of life. To sense the love
and loss, and appreciate the sacredness of life. To taste the
tangible love and hope and faith and grief and loss,
the panorama of mortal life.
What's yours?


I LOVE the imagery, more inner emotion than mental,
that gothic music , classical, and intstrumental music
can fill me with. Lyrics like the song by Concerto Moon:
"When the moon cries, on the wings of darkness"
Music that just does not make my foot 'tap'
but my heart and spirit move to it's flow.
How 'bout you?

I LOVE dark art, which to me, penetrates the surface and
exposes more about life and death, love and hate,
Heaven and Hell, men and women, the beauty of children,
and the cruelty that DOES exist in the world.
Sometimes, the only way to take a honest and sane
look at the realities of life, is thru
the eyes of darkness or insanity.
What do you see?


I AM a hopeless romantic.
That means I am doomed to be betrayed
at all turns in life and mostly by those
I love the most. But I'd rather have that pain and
understanding than let myself become stiffled and numb.
I'd rather die 100's of time in my heart over
this or that, than "not think about" this or that.
To me that's emotionally retarded, that is decay, on two legs.
Your thoughts?


I BELIEVE in the Holy Trinity
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the reality of Purgatory, and the perfect
fairness of divine justice.
This means I must accept that my faults and failings
are my own and by choice, not 'caused' by others or events.
Therefore, I believe the light shines in the darkness,
and that darkness can reveal the light too.
I think at times, it would be easier to be blind. Because,
being willing to peer thru both spectrums,
I think I see and understand more than I want to.
What do you see?

I'M wondering now,
if I've only come off here like a
fool out on a limb.
I could go thru 1,000 things that make my heart throb
from the gothic side, and yours likely throb to your
own list of 1,000 things.

Maybe to you, this whole idea of the
heart means zip? Maybe you are drawn to goth/gothic
things out of depression, or bitterness, or contempt.
Maybe you only like it, because it looks cool and diff' to you.
For a lot of you it may just be a fad,
and that's okay, that is normal, it happens.

I wish I could be a mouse in the corner
as you read this, peeking at your face,
wondering what you think of this discussion.

What are you thinking?

I'm thinking, I bit off more than I thought!
The longer I typed the more I realized~
what is inside a person that makes them goth/gothic
is deeply personal and you who are reading this could
likely point out to me 100's of things I missed.
And I touched on just a few that were personal to me.

We are like a huge tapestry, we each have a unique weave and thread stitch,
but together, we form this wonderful work :)

I mentioned at the start about NOT
being content to be 'shoe-boxed' under the title
'SUB-CULTURE'

Here is why I wish we'd not accept that label:

1)-society uses that to denote undesireable element.
2)-Do you think you are a bad element?
3)-the gothic influence is in the areas I mentioned above.
4)-you should be PROUD to be linked to that sentiment!
5)-look at how enriched the world is, because of those gothics before us!
6)-YES...dig into the past of the creators I mentioned, those areas,
you'll see the gothic influence and boldly.7)- we know it's more than just black! That's a side effect.
8)-when you enjoy being thought of as a 'sub-culture'
you help perpetuate the prejudice of those who want you erased.
9)-don't let their love of lethargy keep you in shadow where you
can't threaten their SMALL concept of life.
10)-walk boldly and smiling into the sunlight, and SHINE dammit!

SHINE DARKLY


*one final remark-
don't go on and on and on to folks
about the ancient goths...this is 2005
and you don't live in bands or in caves,
and you ain't them.

When you give up Taco Bell and go
live like they did for about 20 years,
then, come back and we'll talk :)