Grace at dVerse has invited us to write considering the phrase ‘I am’ – first person narrative, for Meet The Bar. dVerse Poets – Meet The Bar
“You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside.” Alan Cohen
I Am Until It is that I am complicit until I am not, I am a lover until I am not, I am justice unti I am not, I am compassion until I am not, I am awareness until I am not, I am shaped until I am not by all that surrounds where my feet touch the ground and, equally, I am not until I am. ©Paul Vincent Cannon
parallax 
Very cleverly done. A poem that makes me think, for we are all that….until we are not. Wise words.
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Thank you so much for kind and thoughtful response.
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Truth.
We can say we are,
but our behavior will tell the truth
much more than our words.
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Yes, by our deeds, the lived experience speaks loudly. Thank you Brian.
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Well done, and indeed a great reminder too. Michael
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Thank you Michael 🙂
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🙂 Always with a great pleasure to me, Paul! Thank you too.
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🙂
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So honest and raw. I absolutely love this!
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Thank you so much Lucy.
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Sounds like you are human😉
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It has been said, and loudly, lol, very human.
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A compliment indeed
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🙂 True.
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Who is perfec?. I certainly am not. But we try.
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My mother said I was very trying, so I’m definitely far from that. So true Ken.
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Yea!
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🙂
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This was so good Paul. We are always in the driver’s seat and we determine who we are going to be at any given moment.
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Yes, I think some people project not realising they’re imperfect, but yes we drive ourselves. Thank you for your thoughts on this Christine.
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I was very relieved that this came to rest in a good place.
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Ah yes, I was conscious of that too, I didn’t force the ending, but it was heading in a direction that could have been bleak.thank you Liz, appreciate that that thought.
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Reading poetry headed in the bleak direction, I aways hold my breath. It could go either way.
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Yes, so true, I have that same sense at times.
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Your words bring out one’s battle to become. The quest for integrity.
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Yes, no easy thing is it? Thank you so much Astrid.
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I like this, the search for the answer and finding that the complicated route we set ourselves is really unnecessary. We are what we are. Soul searching is a form of self-indulgence, a comfort, rarely a revelation.
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Yes, and, we must simply take responsibility for our imperfections rather than obfuscation and projection. I agree. If soul searching isn’t really the rigour of seeking transformation it is merely introspection.
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There’s quite enough me me me in this world as it is.
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🙂 true for me
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Perhaps, Jane, but if the searching allows a meaningful revelation, even if just rarely, is it not worth it? I do like how you say it is too often a comfort, perhaps the likelihood of it being revelatory is inversely proportional to the amount of comfort on allows oneself? How can one ever be right if they are not willing to look inside and find they are wrong? I have to believe that people can change, but it more often happens by shock and awe and tragedy than by introspection, I have to give you that. For me I am desperately invested, i have to believe that some of my fellow citizens who voted for a racist fascist four years ago, can be persuaded, or at least cajoled, into changing (sorry about making it political, but with my specific health care imperative and even the right to relieve myself without getting arrested is imperiled, I have to hope that some people will try to look inward. I agree with you and Paul though that the big questions of who and where we are in the universe is more of an unfolding than it is a thread in a labyrinth.
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I don’t know about self-awareness and counseling for it has the kind of aims you’re thinking of. I think it’s more to make people happy with what they already believe and do. We have politics, journalists and documentaries to show us what we ought to believe and how we ought to behave but we ignore what would mean a change in our level of comfort. I don’t know of any form of self-awareness therapy that changes people from rabid KKK activists to human rights watch adherents.
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I have friends who have changed from republicans to being democrat or independent, that is what I am talking about, that is what I would like to see more of, some of it happened through introspection, it does not happen enough though.
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I don’t really follow American politics. The two parties seem basically the same to an outsider, both liberal capitalist and not a whiff of Socialism. Maybe I’m just showing my ignorance.
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Lucky for you not to be following it, Trump is a fascist plain and simple. Very scary
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Trump, bad as he is (very bad), he’s a pawn for those who own him.
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I read this morning that the judge investigating the Epstein/Deutshe Bank scandal has been targeted by a hit man. And yet people love him. Like Hitler.
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My neighborhood in Alabama is blanketed by his flags and yard signs. sometimes it feels I can hardly breathe down here, but it is so beautiful, and it might be able to change. Like Hitler, exactly, the duche four years ago raised his hand at a rally and asked the crowd to raise his hand and swear loyalty to Donald J. Trump. I mean what the hell! how Nuremburg is that, it wasn’t even trying to hide the imagery. Oh God, if ever we could use you now.
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I hate to remind you, but the chance of God stepping in, based on past performance is nil.
The US is rotten, based on rotten principles and ideals. The ‘huddled masses’ were only ever factory fodder, and the only true god is mammon.
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I still feel we have a chance. There are some signs of life. I do appreciate you my friend.
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Sometimes I believe that humanity will find a way to assert itself, then I look at meetings of Trump, Bolsonaro, Brexit, Orban supporters and I’m not so optimistic. And I appreciate your ability to be so forgiving when you are in the firing line of the vigilante brigades.
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💕
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Beyond beyond you say?
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Beyond the realms of my imagination anyway.
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🙂
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Rupert Murdoch just loves him, all about making money for Murdoch.
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Horrible.
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Like a bad film.
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Yes, an apt description. Gah!
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I think all western politics has coalesced to centre-right, sadly people feel, safe in benign dictatorships of corporate capitalism.
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Nobody has presented a credible alternative. The left is fragmented into single issue posturing and well, the extreme right, we’ve all had a taste of it and that was enough.
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When the center cannot hold… well you know what happens then.
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Unfortunately. We find it difficult to be reasonable.
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The human condition.
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Indeed I do.
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Yes, a mess.
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Seems like it.
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Too true.
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Real engagement is required for transformation. I have seen it, I have actually done it, but some around me have too, it’s not common though even in little things unless there is a real engagement.
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Almost, if you want to change and accept to change, you’re more than half-way there, your mind is already open.
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Indeed.
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You say it well Lona
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Thought provoking Paul.
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Thank you Rupali, I had hoped for that, just a reminder not to be judgemental is the basis.
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“I am not until I am” – nice line.
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Thank you Imelda 🙂
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I love this little bit of existentialism,
so lovely, I especially love being freed from what surrounds, where our feet touch the ground, love the gently nuanced rhyming that frames the preceding list and punch line so well.
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Thank you so much for engaging with this, appreciate your thoughts Lona.
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I love it Paul. You are you only in the moment!
Dwight
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Absolutely, and imperfectly, thank you Dwight.
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You are welcome! Well done!
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Reading you is better than ice cream.
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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Thank you Chuck.
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😁✨👍👍
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Good use of This’es and that’s. All-that-is are variations on that theme.
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It sure hit me as I came to it, exactly as you say Lisa, thank you for that.
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My pleasure, Paul.
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Read it again, just going to say again how much I love “by all that surrounds where my feet touch the ground.” perpescacity Indeed
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Thank you Lona, the moment of awakening.
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I love the way you have formed this poem
>
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Many thanks
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Reblogged this on natshouseblog and commented:
wonderful poem and sentiment, first one I went to today.
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Thank you so much for sharing this.
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Reblogged this on I Write Her and commented:
May we all decide to be on the side which enriches our being and the lives of others. Growth and learning to be and remain humane is a choice. This piece holds such truth in these few short lines, I’m tempted to memorize it and choose it as a daily affirmation.
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