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Before They Were Night Vale: On Triumph
🕑 Added 2020-08-26 14:57:54 +0000 UTCWelcome to "Before They Were Night Vale", our feature in which Night Vale creators Jeffrey and Joseph share writing from before their Welcome to Night Vale collaboration, along with commentary. Come explore their early writing, both good and bad.
In 2011, my father died at the age of 56. This was about 6 months before I wrote the first paragraph of what would eventually become Night Vale. It would only be years later that I realized how much of early Night Vale was me dealing with the grief over my father.
This is a poem I wrote some years later, I don't remember how many. It's about the day we buried my father. I don't write poetry very much, but I think this one turned out pretty well.
A warning that it is, as you might imagine for a poem about burying your father, a pretty intense one.
-Joseph
******
On Triumph
I watched some ants eat a june bug alive
as we stood around my father’s grave.
It climbed and climbed the same stalk of grass,
writhing, failing to escape,
so what do I know about pain?
And the pine tree nearby was bent nearly horizontal
by the wind that blows cold, daily, whistling off the ocean,
its uppermost branches mere feet from its roots,
so what do I know about giving up?
And anyway, those same ants were just then eating my father,
as was the tree, in its slumped, slower way.
So what I was seeing was not pain, but triumph.
Not a surrender, but a renegotiation of terms.
Everything is what it is, only phrased differently,
as death is just life phrased without us in it.
Comments
Alexander Anne
ive been going through fear of death pretty heavily since i started on my bipolar meds and the last line about death being just life phrased without us in it is going to be my mantra for getting through. its hard to go through and im on “good morning homecoming” and “”grief is the big bad”” resonates with me very heavily
Joedie Sawyer
My father died a few years ago. He was very fond of the outdoors and took me on many hikes at an early age, Exploring nature, discovering peace and balance in the ecosystems of the woods. It’s our place. Now, I get to bring my kid along as well. The cycle continues.
Damo El Diablo
That's really beautiful Joseph, thanks for sharing it with us.
Alyssa Pettit
Seeing all of your work pre/post Night Vale and hearing some of its inspiration makes me see the parallels in my life along yours. (Nothing special, I'm sure we all have them to some degree. ;P) I myself wrote a similar weighted poem about my father's passing at an early age. Some days these parallels act as a source of disappointment, as I did not use my life's fear and grief as a catalyst to creativity... but some days its inspiring and reminds me of what I could do if I channeled my own fears accordingly. All that to say, thanks for sharing. It's inspiring. 💜🖤
Tessa H.
My mom died last year at 56. Thank you for this. 💔
Arcus
Thank you for sharing this - it hit close to home 💛
