Beautiful Suffering #poetry #dVerse

Roots by Frida Kahlo

I’ve been doing a lot of suffering lately 
though I often hear it said
life could
or should
be fun
‘Shouldawouldacoulda’
that’s what I say:
beautiful suffering 
that’s the life for me;
the artists way.

Beautiful suffering,
like dying sunlight rays
over the mountains;
like the break of day
which almost splits itself apart with yearning,
but what’s sweeter than that
beautiful suffering 
when you bleed
into the page
and make it sing?

Sharing with dVerse

Tonight, I am hosting Poetics, where I’m asking for poems which originate ‘from a place of pain,’ examining how that pain can transform us in some way for the better. We all have moments when we suffer, but we can learn from these moments: often they give depth, resonance and authenticity to our art.

The featured image is of the painting ‘Roots’ by Frida Kahlo, who suffered all her life from chronic pain, and often depicted this pain in her artwork in surreal and innovative ways.

The bar opens from 3pm EST: I hope to see you there!

101 thoughts on “Beautiful Suffering #poetry #dVerse”

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  1. I would really like to see the poems that people offer Ingrid. A subject close to my heart. Is this an online meeting that you have to join?

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  2. It is indeed Lorraine, Ingrid. I don’t know why I have come as Anonymous. Never mind though. Sadly, I can’t use the D’Verse site because of its colours. But never mind. Smiles.

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    1. That is a shame! Sorry you can’t visit. If you want me to link a poem of yours up for others to read, I am happy to do that, just send me the link below.

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    1. Thanks Lisa. It would be nice to reach a place where the suffering stops and you look bad, glad for everything it has taught you. I’m not sure if life works out that way, but maybe one day!

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  13. At a time in my life when I was feeling destroyed about a break-up, several of my friends pointed out that i took that pain and turned it into beautiful poems. That seemed pretty damn cool to me.

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  14. Playing devil’s advocate—isn’t it because poets are supposed to have a facility with words that they can write eloquently about suffering, and not because they are more sensitive than people are happier expressing themselves in other ways?

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    1. I am sure poets aren’t the only sensitive people out there in the world! It just seems to me that many people are terribly insensitive to the suffering of others. Perhaps artists in general are more empathetic in nature, but I couldn’t be sure.

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      1. I’m not sure either. Isn’t there a huge amount of ego involved too (think Picasso, Modigliani, Wordsworth himself) and insensitivity towards the people closest to them?

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      2. I suppose it depends upon the individual. I think there is a lot of ego involved in artistry, but I doubt it lends much to the art itself!

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      4. I think true art has an authenticity which has no need of cleverness or pushiness. That doesn’t mean true artist are never clever or pushy, of course!

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      6. There are plenty of those, but they don’t normally stand the test of time. I pity those like Van Gogh or Emily Dickinson who die without ever having their talent recognised in their lifetime.

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      7. Women rarely did. I know we keep being told that we write ‘because we have to’ and it doesn’t matter if nobody ever reads or buys what we create, but imho that’s bollocks. We need recognition of some kind, something that makes it worth the huge effort.

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      9. I think those ideas are tossed out by people who have a decent standard if living, a good job and don’t need the money. They like to think that nobody ever really minded starving in a garret.

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  16. Suffering without meaning is like dying drunk. The beauty comes in the transformation of suffering, and that is the shamanic work we are still about in our poems. How did the myth go, it’s when the nightingale’s beak presses to the tender flesh of the heart that the singing begins? Thanks for the D’Verse challenge –

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  19. Artists do have a great capacity to feel which undoubtedly leads to great suffering. Expression is our gift and savior. ✨ A beautiful poem, Ingrid, that reminds me of Kahlil Gibran’s poem, “A Tear and a Smile,” that I posted a few weeks ago.

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  25. nailed it Ingrid, haunting nuances without too much detail.

    First FK work I’ve ever seen that wasn’t a facial portrait … but its always her! She does do pain well, experience counts.

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  32. First, that art is perfect and really thought provoking. The image’s meaning flows so perfectly to your stanzas. Love these lines: Beautiful suffering,
    like dying sunlight rays
    over the mountains;

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