Pandora's Box

A reflection on life through Greek Mythology

Darkness... with a little bit of light
The very essence of humanity's great fight
Struggle to live amidst turmoil
Contradictory by nature, Earth's great foil.

Bitterness fills the hearts of men
Till only hope can sure defend
We open the box, as minds always do
We cower in fear as we watch chaos ensue.

The box we are told never to open holds the darkest pains known to man...
Sorrow so deep, it brings people to their knees
Tears them from the inside as they watch their greatest fears manifest
--right before their eyes
Anger so bitter, it rips families apart.
Loved ones yell violently at each other
--often over a simple miscommunication
Loneliness and abandon strikes at the core of the human existence
The very need to fill our lives with special people
Who do special things
--and hurt us- in special ways.
Envy and jealousy crafted simply because the things we love most in life
-- are the things we never get.
Indifference... to humanity
--Because humanity failed to be human anymore
Mistrust spawned from continual broken promises
And lack of faith,
because faith is no longer enough.
Finally, above all else, Heartbreak.
Heartbreak so painful, and so lasting, it makes everything else pale in comparison
After all, the rest just come together to forge it...
Heartbreak tears at the soul, and resides in every thought of the being.
It haunts darkly as the victim loses sight of everything they know
Stabbing at cherished memories, and threatening to consume...
The one who loses love, loses life.

Then, in the final moments of despair, one last voice makes its call
The final straggler in the box, more dangerous than all
Hope is left standing in the heart of darkness
Hope, shining brightly, comes to profess.

However, there is a price to be paid when messing with hope
As much as hope gives, hope takes even more.
Hope gives the feeling that amidst the hardship of life, it will work out
-- only to have more pain take the old pain's place.
Hope allows us to feel over and over again,
-- the same pain that tore us up to begin with
It tells us, it's ok. It will be better
Only...
It never is...
And never will be
Hope lets our guard down so we can give in
To the pains, and the pressures of existence.
Perhaps hope is the one good thing to come out of the box
Yet it has co-existed with the others for so long,
It has become just as hard to swallow.
--and even more painful...

Even still, I must accept the hope
Much as I have come to accept the others.
I think of myself as Pandora,
Because...
My Heart is my Box

Author's Note

Just had the idea and wanted to run with . Tell me what you think, constructive criticism always accepted!

Reviews

[AliciaB]

This is an impressively deep and powerful poem. Before I get into the good stuff, let me mention that "let's" should be "lets" in the line "Hope let's our guard down so we can give in" - stupid grammar. Nobody likes it. :) Ok, maybe grammar nerds do. But ANYWAY... as I was saying, this poem is amazing. First of all, I love the mixing of rhyming, more "structured" stanzas with patches of free verse. It's a unique writing style, one that I sometimes employ... I'm glad I'm not the only one! :) And I have to say that I chuckled a little bit when I read the line "Contradictory by nature, Earth's great foil." It brought up [somewhat] fond memories of English class my freshman year of high school (which was not all that long ago) and discussing character foils while reading Macbeth. Being the insolent, unappreciative freshmen we were, we did not enjoy such discussions very much, and we would all moan whenever someone made a joke about foils outside of English class. But getting to the REAL importance of this poem - the ideas and the way you present them are spectacular. You express the most painful aspects of human existence and then expound upon them with real, viscerally relatable examples, dragging the reader deeper and deeper into this "heart of darkness" you describe. I'm going to highlight some of the lines that spoke to me the most: "The very need to fill our lives with special people / Who do special things / --and hurt us- in special ways" (the ones we love are the ones with the most power to hurt us, either through their actions/words towards us or towards themselves - something that I have definitely experienced)... "Because humanity failed to be human anymore" (AWESOME line - I love the play on "humanity" and "human," and it's definitely something that we can all relate to, both in a historical context and based on events occurring around us in the present day)... "faith is no longer enough" (heartrendingly true. Being religious, faith is supposed to be the constant that I can always depend on... but that's not always the case. What do you do when you lose the only thing that truly anchors you?) And then there's your explanation of hope and its paradoxical effect on people. It's gritty, real, and agonizingly true. Hope allows us to carry on, but it adds a whole new dimension of pain to our lives. Great job in exploring such complex, emotional themes in the piece. It is outstanding.

[Darian B.]

Thank you for your awesome review! I appreciate the grammar correction, I actually really enjoy grammar but mistakes always slip out. :) I like the lines you highlighted though, those are some of my own favorite lines so I'm glad you liked them. It means a lot to get nice reviews like this so thank you

[AliciaB]

You are most welcome! And it's awesome that you like grammar - it's just one of those things that can be annoying at times. :) I've totally been there with the little mistakes!

[Michaela Moerke]

I love this one man. The length is perfect to describe every emotion and every thought. The message was deep and heart wrenching. Everyone can connect to this poem in their own way. Congrats once again

[Darian B.]

As always, it means a lot coming from you and I appreciate it! Thank you for the review!!

[Nessly]

Sorrow, anger, loneliness, envy and jealousy, mistrust, heartbreak, and finally hope... These are all very real human emotions. You describe them so well in your writing. I never think of hope as being dark but the way you describe it is absolutely stunning. I love the idea that hope both takes and gives.

Great poem!

[Darian B.]

Thank you! That means a lot coming from you! Honestly I didn't think of hope as being dark until I was writing this poem and I was thinking about my own life. It's a lot easier to move on from something when we lose the hope that it will work out. My take on life is rather strange though. I like to think that I see the world differently, but then, that's how poets are in general I guess. Glad you enjoyed the poem though :)

[William Liston]

Wow. This is your best poem. I would love to hear you read it aloud. I think that it would compliment your spoken-word style since that type of poetry is meant to be heard rather than read (don't get me wrong, this still sounds good when read).

Before I critique this, I must compliment you skills in rhyme. It is hard ot maintain a good flow in unmetered, rhyming poetry, yet I think you did a good job of that in this. The only thing I can critique about the rhyming portion of this poem is the last line of the second stanza. It would flow better if it read "and cower in fear as chaos ensues." I think I once left a reivew on one of your earlier poems where I expanded upon kitty blur's critique. The advice I gave in that review can apply to this poem.

The only other thing I can critique is the visual presentation. I'd suggest using the Georgia font again.

That's really all I have to say. This is a very nice poem with a strong voice and an interesting message. Great work.

-William Liston

[William Liston]

The review I alluded to was on your poem "Hurting for You."

[Darian B.]

Thank you and I agree about this being my best. Everything just sort of flowed out of me and it came together as best as I could have "hoped." I do remember the review about the rhyme scheme but I want to leave that line mostly how it is. I knew that it sounded a little bit off because it has too many syllables and made the conscious decision to leave it that way. I see it as just the first sign of chaos that opening the box brings. I'm glad you liked it though, this poem has a lot of personal feelings attached to it and so I wanted it to be good

[H.L. Cerveise]

I must admit when I first saw this poem my initial thought was, the third stanza needs to be broken up. It looks to long and dense; however, when I started reading that stanza, it flowed well, and I enjoyed every line. Then when you took hope, the final item in the box and made it dark, I again admit I liked that very much. Your ending and your last line, "My Heart is my Box" tying that to Pandora; I just thought yes so true for all.

Well done

[Darian B.]

Thanks for the review! I definitely considered putting heartbreak into its own stanza but I chose to leave it there because I think it really creates the rift between hope and the others so I'm glad it worked. When I first started writing this poem, I was actually going to leave hope as a positive force but with my current situation, I realized how much false hope is actually hurting me rather than helping. I'm glad you liked this poem, I think it is my favorite one I have written so far