The Tortured Poet

So it seems that the tortured poet is a real phenomenon. For example, my favourite works by Hermann Hesse and Saint-Exupéry are so beautiful written yet have been attributed to the authors’ pain. But I wonder, what is the cause and effect? Is it that the pain of being human is so hauntingly beautiful that we can’t help admiring it? Or is it the vulnerable expression of pain that is so courageously beautiful? Perhaps, from a less masochistic perspective, it is the release of the pain and the healing that comes with it that makes it poignantly beautiful?

Regardless, I want to ask myself more important questions. Is it worth it to purposely seek out pain to create beautiful artwork? And is pain necessary so that such beauty can remain in the world? I don’t think so. Or rather, I hope not. I don’t want to participate in that pattern anymore.

We can create beauty without purposely seeking or creating pain. We will still have the dark amidst the light, decay amidst new growth, and loss amidst the joy. But I believe our ability to work with the tools that create beauty, whether that be language, movement, sounds, or the composition of colours and shapes, can be beautiful in itself. Within our existence is already the seeds of all the beauty we need.