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Mine Is A Different Darkness

My darkness holds
not a candle to the alarming ease
with which so many speak in their negative,
their cynical, as if second nature, to their speech.

Each dig they make; each ‘dis’ spoken,
their every pithy putdown pouncing,
seems as natural to them as if
their every predatory respiration.

Theirs is a different darkness.
It has nothing to do with that which
is real, but that which they conceive
before they perceive, in mean spirit.

My knowing darkness
is cast from the flicker of flame.
Their darkness slithers
ignorantly from lesser shadows.

©2022 David Alec Knight All rights reserved.

While in high school in Chatham, Ontario, David Alec Knight and his parents were told by a teacher there that he would be lucky to finish high school, and certainly wouldn’t make it through university. One of David’s English teachers, Bernard Cameron, saw something in his poems though and encouraged him to pursue his writing. He also attended workshops led by the poet, Ted Plantos, when he was writer-in-residence at the Chatham library.

David’s poems have appeared in the recent anthologies, By The Wishing Tree (2021), Poets For Ukraine – Volume 1 (2022), Muse (2022), and Love Lies Bleeding (2022). Recent poems have appeared in Verse Afire, Cajun Mutt Press, and The Lothlorien Poetry Journal.

David’s work journeys honestly through darkness before there is any light, so it is well-earned and substantial when there is reprieve. He speaks with his own voice, but he acknowledges as inspiration and influence, Edgar Lee Masters, Carl Sandburg, Gregory Corso, Charles Bukowski, Irving Layton, Ted Plantos, E. J. Pratt, and Paul-Marie Lapointe. Margaret Atwood’s Journals of Susanna Moodie and Irving Layton’s A Wild And Peculiar Joy are most reread in his library.

Since graduating from St. Clair College in 2014/15, David has worked in healthcare as a Personal Support Worker. In 2021, he was recipient of The Ted Plantos Memorial Award for Poetry. The Heart Is A Hollow Organ, David’s first book, soon followed.

Leper Mosh (Cajun Mutt Press) is David’s second collection of poems. It is dedicated to his high school English teacher, Bernard Cameron (RIP).

“David Alec Knight’s ‘Leper Mosh‘ is an amalgamation of beauty and darkness. From waxing nostalgic about a youth of heavy metal, horror films, and comics to turning mirrors into windows of a woman’s soul, this book hits with full-throttle force. Even at its more bittersweet or softer moments, there is an underlying edge that runs the gamut of this book. With lines like: “Outside, distant sirens prowl. We reach for the first dark and our desires make light,” Knight’s repertoire of emotive language makes ‘Leper Mosh‘ a poignant read and a definite keeper. Any fan of poetry will love this book.”
—Heath Brougher, editor-in-chief of Concrete Mist Press

“The secret Knight is letting the reader in on… Well you already know, but you hide from it, you ignore it, you bury it. But, there is no getting past Knight’s willingness to dive into the morose, the malaise and the madness of life. This collection of poems is filled with gems and insight, and an unflinching look at a life unfurled.”
—Rob Azevado (Don’t Order The Calamari, Turning on The Wasp)

US
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFWJ41G9
CA
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BFWJ41G9