Every Viole(n)t Night Analyzation
This particular poem describes a strange set of coincidences in my life: important events relating to either childhood or romance usually take place in parks. I’ve often joked ‘Maybe I should just stay out of parks’ because every time I enter them that event becomes a defining moment, either positive or negative.
My first defining park moment occured in St. Charles, IL, where I was living with my family for a year. The event there was initially positive, but later obtained a negative association through an unfortunate (and for me emotionally devestating) circumstance. That first night was beautiful. The sky was literally violet, fading to orange from city lights at the base of the hill I sat on. Fireflies lit up in the grass below, and deer grazed quietly until they spooked away. This purple sky featured in a later poem not included on this site, and inspired the title.
I enjoy the title immensely because it can be read in two ways: Every Violet Night, drawing parallels between each park experience, and Every Violent Night, as most of my park experiences are emotionally damaging. You could say that most of my violet nights become violent nights.
Once you understand this back-story, the rest becomes fairly easy to interpret: my greatest poems arise from the turmoil resulting from parks at night, and so they are also linked with the duende. In this poem I explore the possibility that the ‘childhood comfort’ of playgrounds and parks have become my personal symbols for impending disaster.
In this poem the duende features prominently as a bat, though he is not always represented so. I’m particularly proud of myself for the comparisons between bat and dove, and the religious symbolism of the annointing of the dove. Linking God and the duende is another theme of mine throughout my poetry.
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