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"The poem has ties to the Dark Tower epic. When King originally began writing The Stand, he wrote "A dark man with no face." This became the description for Randall Flagg and is an exact line from the poem. The man in a raincoat may also be one of the can-toi that appear in several King stories."

Got this from Wikipedia

Interesting, but I don't do so well w/ poetry of any kind.

The best way to read a poem is to see it as a story in verse. Ignore the look of it and just read. Poems often have layers of meaning, but if you read it like a story, you can easily glean the first layer which is: it's just a story. You don't have to worry about symbolism or anything. It is just a story to enjoy.

For all of that, even stories have layers that you may not always see at first. But that is beside the point.

I am trying to remember what this poem reminds me of. Certainly it has many Dark Tower references. Those are easy to pick out. But the is something else. A book I read a long time ago. Death is a Lonely Business (I just looked it up, although I'm not sure why it is pertinent).

A paranoid man, who may not be so paranoid after all. Like Insomnia...there is another world that shimmers within or around our own that not everyone can see.

Poetry

is

pretentious.

If you've got a story to tell, tell it.

Hiding behind symbolism and some hieratic speech

sucks.

I hated

poetry

in college. Putting words

in some unique order that

was supposed convey meaning and

hidden implication

on

its

own

drove me insane...

My teacher was

insane

himself. Killing every poem we wrote on arrival. I hated

him...

and the horse

he


rode



in





on.






Mark

Mark you are awesome! You are a poet and didn't know it.

Mark, I couldn't agree more. I hate reading poetry, even when it is part of books that I love, like Lord of the Rings... I can't bring myself to do more than skim the lays and songs in that one.

I even liked Jim Gardener (The Tommyknockers) less as a character because he was a poet. I'm such a terrible person... LOL

Becky, at least now I know I am not the only one who does that when I read LOTR.

Yep, it's true... but I am trying to get past this issue that I have with poetry. I own Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost, but am a bit daunted by them and haven't tried to read either of them yet... Baby steps, I think.

LOL! I forgot about these. How funny. But really, isn't that what a novel is? Symbolism masked in dense prose? And harder to understand sometimes because there is so much material to get through. And so many connections to make.

You can't really put any real meaning onto this, really. It's college level free verse...I could write something like this if given a few hours.

I am not a big fan of poetry either. I agree with Abigail, the easiest way to power through, is just read the story, but I feel guilty with just that. I know there is suppsed to be more, and sometimes I just don't see it!

Just saw this old thread and had to weigh in. I am typically not a poetry person, either, but I really loved this poem! It's almost like reading a short story - he just paints a really creepy picture. I like these little sort of vignettes, where there isn't really a beginning or an end or a plot, but just the situation in and of itself is enough to give you the heebie-jeebies.

So, I found this video (thanks to The Stephen King Illustrated Companion) and I think it is really well done.

Check it out:

I'm not the biggest lover of poems, but if I could SEE them all that way, I might be:) That was an excellent video.

I'm not either. I really dislike poetry for the most part, and dislike reading in verse.

But that's cool. I really liked it.

It makes me feel unrefined, but I even hate when a books word are typed in columns to look like poetry, as if, just their spacing and form on the page makes them poetical.

Pshaw!

Yeah, I know. You're not unrefined. If you're like me, you just have little time for pretense. If you have something to say, say it and get on with it! LOL

What did that video have to do with anything (I am just confused). It was good but what did it have to do with King?

That's King's poem.

A while back he allowed people to buy unowned stories for $1, so that they could make mini-movies from them, but they couldn't sell them or distribute them in any way without permission, as they would still be King's property.

That's one of the short video adaptations, and I think the ONLY one that was allowed to circulate freely.