Steven Handel, in his article, “The Power of Dark Humor: The Healing Effects of Joking About Death, Illness, and Depression,” makes this observation: “One big aspect of mental health is that we must give ourselves permission to be negative every now and then, and learning to channel our dark side in a healthy way is important for becoming a fully developed human being.”1 The focus of the article, as the title suggests, is how allowing trauma’s darkness to be expressed through humor can facilitate healing. Whether that trauma is physical, emotional, or psychological, using its pain as a catalyst for humor can have positive affects. Steve Handel’s article is very insightful; and I enjoyed reading it, which brought to mind another take on the subject. Like humor, poetry can also be an avenue for expressing the darkness we feel in a beneficial way that can help the healing process.

One poem I had written when I was going through a dark spot had been intended as a light, amusing little rhyme; something to take my mind off the apparent storm I had submerged myself in. I titled it, “Ode to a Worm:”

Wriggle, my slimy, squirmy friend,
As on my hook you meet your end.
A tiny morsel to catch a fish,
Who then will be a tasty dish.

This little ditty, when I was writing it, brought to mind more pleasant memories of when I was a boy and my parents would pack up the family on Saturdays or Sundays in the summer months to go fishing. The night-crawlers we had collected the night before would become bait to catch the fish we hoped to take home. The slimy little guys would wriggle and squirm as we put them on the hook and cast them into the water. They fought, oh how they fought, but to no avail. Their doom was sealed.

Some time later, though, I began to consider a deeper, more insightful meaning. I wondered if, in some twisted, dark sense, the worm was me and I was dangling impaled on the hook of my own doing. The hook, shiny and barbed, was every stupid thing I had ever done, all of the ridiculous decisions I had ever made, and each life-altering sin I had ever committed. And the fish? The fish was life, and I was about to be eaten by life. Like the worm, my fate was sealed; doom was approaching and there was no escape.

But, even in this seemingly dark rhyme, there is hope. Look at the last line… the fish will become a tasty dish. The worm may have lost its life; but, in the end, the fish is conquered. In this regard, I think that what is represented is a life not lived in fear or regret. Rather, it is a life that is surrendered to the circumstances with which it is presented, the circumstances that are endured or celebrated as the circumstance dictates. It may may be an old cliché, but every cloud does have a silver lining. You just have to look for it.

1 – Handel, Steven, “The Power of Dark Humor: The Healing Effects of Joking About Death, Illness, and Depression,” accessed on July 6, 2019, https://www.theemotionmachine.com/the-power-of-dark-humor-the-healing-effects-of-joking-about-death-illness-and-depression/.