Friday Feature: @Dark

It’s that magical day once again. It’s bloody Friday. Which means we bash down doors with our Friday Feature battering ram once again and root through the memories and thoughts of another Proser. This week we are lucky enough to have the bright ray of sunshine that is the one and only @Dark

P: What is your given name and your Proser username?

D: Mark is the name my parents assigned, the sound a hairlip dog makes. I go by Dark on Prose, mainly due to my perspective on life and the human conditions I experience and observe.

I have been called a pessimist, but I argue a realist. It is not an overt intention to be maudlin, melancholy, and Dark, but simply how I am. I do find beauty in much of life, although I am more in tune with the shadows walking hand in hand.

P: Where do you live?

D: I am a third generation Colorado native. Most of life saw me haunting the suburbs of Denver, but I now reside high up in the Rockies in a small town just outside Glenwood Springs, home of the world's largest natural hot springs pool. Open year round alongside the banks of the Colorado River, the pool harnesses 3.5 million gallons of mineral rich waters bubbling up from the earth's core EVERY DAY.

P: What is your occupation?

D: Currently I am the In-school Suspension Supervisor at a local middle school, which means I spend my days monitoring the behavior and productivity of the somewhat less than cream of the crop students. Before this, though, I taught high school English for many years. During that tenure, I coached, directed the school plays, and drove the bus to activities and events. I have also worked in business management, traveled as a consultant, landscaped, and even given drum lessons.

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

D: Like all relationships, mine with writing is a messy and complicated one. I have always written with relative ease (not to be mistaken for having written well), but not to the liking of some. A college professor crucified everything I ever put to paper, and to this day I find myself fearful of what Charlie Meyer would say. A wife once berated my efforts so vehemently that I quit writing altogether for several years.

In pushing myself to improve, my OCD will kick down the door and I will agonize over and scrutinize every word or construction searching for the Holy Grail of composition. When having not written for some time, the congealed clog of ideas and thoughts become so impacted that an authorial enema ensues. Most of it gets flushed, but a few choice nuggets might cling.

P: What value does reading add to both your personal and professional life?

D: As a kid, reading allowed me that escape that everyone speaks of. I wish I had held onto it so much tighter through the years as less innocent avenues of escape were travelled. Now in the "winter of my discontent," it is once again a warm and safe place in which to retreat.

Professionally, my writing has provided prominence in every venture, especially education. Being able to "do" as well as "teach" was critical to my success. I wrote and delivered speeches for countless occasions from Veteran's Day ceremonies to National Honor Society Inductions to Commencement. My students were perennially ranked in the top of annual state assessments because they felt confident that I knew what I was doing and had their back.

P: Can you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

D: Not being a literary luminary like so many here, my current ventures are reserved exclusively for Prosers. Future posts probably wont vary greatly from previous ones - sorry. Actually, new posts may be a bit lighter as I am on new meds.

P: What do you love about Prose? Practically everything; Diverse formats and genres, creative challenges and nonjudgmental support. The pride and quality that went into the inception of Prose is evident at every turn, and invites pride and quality from our community, free from censorship.

P: Is there one book that you would recommend everybody should read before they die?

D: Nope. They have to read at least four. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton for their humanity and its destruction. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein for its all-consuming desperation - on many levels, and Fahrenheit 451 for Bradbury's almost psychic look into a future without books.

P: Do you have an unsung hero who got you into reading and/or writing?

D: Not really - they have just always been part of me.

P: Describe yourself in three words!

D: "Life is Suffering." This is the First Noble Truth of Buddhism. All aspects of life - birth, aging, illness, union with what is displeasing, separation from what is pleasing, not getting what we want, death - is suffering, either for us or for those in our circle of influence.

The good news is that the Second Noble Truth allows us to identify the origin of our suffering and take steps to mediate it. So when taken at face value, those three words are quite bleak, they sum up my perspective of being realistic and aware of the now.

P: Is there one quote, from a writer or otherwise, that sums you up?

D: "Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." - William Shakespeare, Macbeth

P: What is your favourite music to listen to, and do you write to it?

D: I have never been able to listen to music while either reading or writing. Too much is already going on in me little ol' brainses. I do love me some Pearl Jam and Blue October, though. Fun fact: KISS was my first concert when I was around 14 and saw them again on a cruise for my 50th.

P: You climb out of a time machine into a dystopian future with no books. What do you tell them?

D: "You stupid little fucks! We knew you'd let this happen! Give me a pen - "

P: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you/your work/social media accounts?

D: What kind of writer wouldn't want to flood the webiverse with his musings and rantings? Me. My only internet presence is right here. Not too bright, I know, but I guess I never felt worthy of taking the next steps, whatever they may be.

Thanks muchly to Dark for answering our questions. Do we need to tell you to follow if you don’t already do so, interact and like what he does? No, of course we don’t. We’re also running low on victims to feature in future Friday Features, so stop being shy and get in touch on info@theprose.com as we want to know aaaaall about you, even if that is delivered from behind a veil of anonymity (which is just fine).