Photo: thegoodmenproject.com
“There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.” Cornel West
Pretending
There are some,
but few lines are straight,
we are two uneven halves,
and the wind whips nature
into new maps as rivers
carve bends that even turn
in on themselves while
the relentless ocean
ever wastes itself on
shoreline rocks,
but we become illusion
to satisfy demands,
we straighten lines and bends
offering opinions
that want to be heard,
presenting faces that
want to be seen,
living a deception of ourselves,
pretending to believe in the
straightness of lines.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Note: The Japanese have a word that describes those who pretend to believe something to suit society – Tatemae
Paul, pvcann.com.
parallax 
Very true
>
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🙂
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I love it Paul!❤️❤️❤️☕️☕️☕️❤️❤️❤️👍👍
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Thank you indeed ❤️ 🙂
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This poem has given me a lot to think about. I was going say that sometimes pretending to believe in the straightness of lines is needed for survival–but it’s not self-deception. But does that make the pretending even worse?
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I wonder that, if it’s for survival surely that is discounted, as are all matters in life and death, including an economy of truth.
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Cornel West, one of the great minds. To some extent it is conscious and willful, to another extent it’s the mind’s way of diverting some of the stuff away so we don’t go into overload. I think also that too many — myself included — have gotten too entrenched in that diversion rut. Humans are a paradox in being the strongest, yet most fragile simultaneously. We’re flawed, but we’re all we have.
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Absolutely Lisa, big yes to that, so agree and thank you for adding that.
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You are very welcome.
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Solid words.
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Many thanks for that, appreciated.
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Sure thing.
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Food for thought, Paul.
I see it everyday when people turn themselves in illusions so easily without even noticing the harm they do to themselves. They loose their originality and close all the doors leading towards improvement.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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Many thanks Chuck 🙂
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A very beautiful and true poem. Humans try to repair the nature, where it worked best wiithout them. 😉 Thank you Paul! Have a great day. Michael
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Thank you Michael, you too 🙂
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:-))
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