I wrote this after discovering that the Scary Stories To Read In The Dark books were being re-released without Stephen Gammell's illustrations. Those pictures are horrifying and grotesque, but they are also the primary reason why I still like those books so much. I recommend picking them up if you never have before (just make sure Stephen Gammell's name is on the cover!)
Why
I Love My Nightmares
I feel a strange kind of love
for the things which have
given me nightmares.
Those nightmares belong to me.
They have become part of me,
and the things which spawned them
and made me so afraid are
what made me who I am now.
So I find myself enamored with
the things that frighten me,
and I will defend their power
because without the things I fear,
who am I?
Copyright (C) 2012 by Eric Landuyt
I like this concept a lot. The whole "evil creates good" argument fascinates me, and it's nice to see it applied to a more personal level. I don't see anything that the persona actually fears, though... for a poem about nightmares, it seems too abstract. Even if what you write about doesn't scare everyone, the best horror writings are derived from what scares the author personally. So go ahead and be specific... we won't mind!
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