The Slatted Door

[alatos]

Though I don't understand a word of this (which seems par for the course in poetry the past 70 years, fitting Joyce's comment that 'poetry is a game"), isolated parts (words, phrases, images) are provocative and do have a effect.

I notice you use 2 different rhyme patterns (abab, and aabb).  I guess that's as good as any other pattern, and I imagine it was neither planned nor a result of necessity - it just came out that way.

I like your form and don't find the meter strained at all.  It seemed natural to me.  I should say something about the content, but I can't because I don't know what it is.  I like cryptic poems that have an effect, but only sometimes, and really prefer poems whose meaning is obvious.

I truly didn't expect any confusion surrounding this poem (actually worrying that it might be a little too common of a theme/symbol). The image of the slatted door down a long hallway came from an episode of "American Horror Story." I don't watch the show, and didn't even finish the episode, but for some reason the image was just begging to be written about. 

I used the door at the end of a hallway as symbolic of death at the end of life's path. Behind that door... annihilation (at least in the speaker's mind). This is what the lines about the room being empty, and nothingness, and silence are about. That's why there are claw marks  and dried blood at its entrance. And there's also the aspect of going through life alone with no hope. That's why the speaker craves the abyss at the end.