Please, Don't Keep Me in the Dark about the Dark

The great and eternal struggle of parenthood: how restrictive and protective should rules be, and how unconditional should freedom be? Can any law protect from the darkness within?

How do you raise up innocence in a world full of stifling dark

where love seems but a spark that never flames?

In the silent hour a man thinks often, "Weren't we all just ill-begotten?

"And the soonest the best when all have forgotten our names?"

I swore my heart was empty before I felt it break.

The old words grew sweet and heavy, killing silence with blessed ache.

And this torture, which was surgery, was for my own sake.

And you just left me in the dark.

How do you raise up common sense in a world only four walls-wide?

Have his "obedient" hands been tied with your good intentions?

But no lamp can dispel the vacuum that is the self unexposed to the great outside.

So with the door his eyes open wide in a burning tension.

I swore my heart was empty before I felt it break.

The old words grew sweet and heavy, filling silence with blessed ache.

And this torture, which was surgery, was for my sake.

But you kept me in the dark.

You kept me in the dark.

You kept me in the dark of my own heart.

Author's Note

All comments welcome.

Reviews

[Davidgeo]

Knowledge always conquers the darkness. If you raise your kids not to be stupid and think for themselves they will be just fine. Holding out hope for innocence is an arbitrary and silly thing to do; the harder you try to force that the more it becomes a wedge.

I do like how you write. I'd shorten things up a bit, some of your lines run a little long. "word economy" is something a good writer once told me to always keep in mind.

[Joel Crow]

Thank you for your comments. I think that ultimately knowledge can conquer darkness, but some knowledge is too heavy for young children to bear if they don't have to. But as children progress into adolescents they do learn to think for themselves and you're right, at that point parents should begin to put away the desire for childlike innocence, but it's easier said than done. The struggle to do that is what this song is meant to describe.

[Davidgeo]

Nothing conquers the darkness. We can only delay it. Nothing is forever... forever is not a thing.

[H L Rose]

I like this topic. I can only imagine how difficult it might be to expose a child to a broken world, and also balance how to prevent them from being exposed to too much.
I also like all the metaphors you use. It is not straight forwardly written, yet it is easily understood, and also offers a lot to be analyzed at the same time.
I enjoyed reading it!

[Joel Crow]

Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. These are the lyrics to a song I've been writing, so I'm glad the meaning is quite clear.