Patron Saints of the Dark
Rainer Maria Rilke
In my new book, The Wisdom of a Broken Heart, there is a chapter called “It is a Dark Night.” I talk about those artists, poets, and thinkers who have an affinity for darkness–not morbidity or pessimism, but for sadness, despair, and confusion. They have not insisted on the unrelenting positivity which deadens the soul, but have allowed darkness to transform them. When your heart is broken (for whatever reason) these are the artists who bring solace. I am so grateful to them. Here is my list of patron saints of the dark. Who would you add?
Billie Holiday
Bob Dylan
Bruce Springsteen
Chögyam Trungpa
Dante
Emily Dickinson
Ingmar Bergman
Isak Dinesen
John Donne
Leonard Cohen
Machig Labdron
Milarepa
Muddy Waters
Pema Chodron
Persephone
Rabindranath Tagore
Rainer Maria Rilke
St. John of the Cross
Thomas Moore
Willie Nelson
An example of beautifully dark writing:
But everything that once perhaps will be possible to many, the solitary man can already prepare for and build now with his hands, which go less astray. Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and bear the pain which it has caused you with fair-sounding lament. For those that are near you are far, you say, and this shews that distance begins to grow round you. And when your nearness is far, then your distance is already among the stars and very great; be glad of your growing, into which you can take no one else with you, and be good to those that remain behind, and be self-possessed and quiet with them and do not torment them with your doubts and do not frighten them with your confidence or joy, which they could not comprehend. Seek some unpretending and honest communion with them, which you are under no necessity to alter when you yourself become more and more different; love life in a strange guise in them, and make allowance for those ageing people who fear the solitude in which you trust.
--Rainer Maria Rilke
17 comments
New Post: “Patron Saints of the Dark.” A list of those writers, musicans, poets who are unafraid of the shadows. http://snurl.com/aylx8
I would certainly add Natalie Goldberg’s “The Great Failure” as well as Mary-Chapin Carpenter’s work.
Great suggestions… Thanks, Diane.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Frank Sinatra (Point of No Return, Only the Lonely, Where are you?)
T-Bone Burnett
Etta James
Besse Smith
Beautiful…
Tom Waits.
perfect…
Rickie Lee Jones
Spalding Gray!
Oh, totally. Yes.
Sue Miller
Ursula Hegi
Patrick Suesskind
Peter Hoeg
Margaret Atwood
Orson Scott Card
Brahms
Mozart (e.g. Don Giovanni)
Joni Mitchell
J.S. Bach
Jacques Loussier
Leonard Cohen
Mary Oliver
Anton Chekhov
James Joyce
Annie Proulx
Miles Davis
Picasso
Freud (Sigmund as well as his daughter Anna)
Tennessee Williams
Eugene O’Neill
Radiohead
Aimee Mann
I have to second the Joni nomination as well.
Rich, Leslie, Helga, all–
This is turning into an amazing list. Where else could we find a list that includes Ingmar Bergman & Spalding Gray & Radiohead?
God, I love you people.
Readers coming up w pithy list of Patron Saints of Darkness, from Emily Dickinson to Tennessee Wms to Radiohead. http://snurl.com/aylx8
Flannery O’Connor
Cormac Mccarthy
Totally.