At dVerse Peter is hosting Meeting the Bar with an invitation to explore endings/beginnings.
dVerse Poets – MTB – Endings/Beginnings
“I’m interested in memory because it’s a filter through which we see our lives ….” Kazuo Ishiguro
And Cut Them Into Pieces I lived the secrets and cut them into pieces lest they find me and undo my perfect belief that I am indeed my true self and not another, a mere codicil to a footnote of self-deception. Lest they find me and undo my perfect belief that I am merely myself and no purified saint, a mere codicil to a footnote of self-deception, lost in the annals of myopic delusions. That I am merely myself and no purified saint, exposed to the world, bared in all emptiness, lost in the annals of myopic delusions, accusing me or mirroring myself to my face. Exposed to the world, bared in all emptiness, that I am indeed my true self and not another, accusing me of mirroring myself to my face, I lived the secrets and cut them into pieces. ©Paul Vincent Cannon
parallax 
Excellent crafting, Paul, and pray no one uncovers our delusion.
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I concur with that prayer VJ, many thanks.
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Most welcome!
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Cutting secrets into pieces is going to ‘stay’ with me for a bit. This is an epic pantoum, epic in its scope, depth. Cheers and Happy Holidays, see you next year.
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Helen, very kind indeed, thank you so much for sharing that. Yes, happy holidays and looking forward to a better year for all. 🙂
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oooh this was really good Paul. The title was like “uh oh” and then “oh Yes”
bravo to a great piece 👏👏👏👏
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Yes, I was super conscious of the title being so blunt, thank you so much Cindy, much appreciated.
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you nailed it! a title is our first grab at something. you’re welcome..it’s easy to share when word speaks for itself. You did not visit fun friday, but there’s still time-:) 🤣❤️
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🙂 yes I have been running behind, thank you very much. 🙂
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Hard to keep up.. I get it!!! -:(-:)
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🙂
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You have consummate command of the pantoum form and chose a good topic for it. I think about how our bodies have sensory receptors to teach us to stay away from things that can damage or destroy it. I think the mind uses filters in the same way. We have to cut ourselves into pieces because we couldn’t take the totality of who we are.
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Exactly so Lisa, it is overpowering until we accept fully who we really are 🙂 Well picked. Thank you for sharing your response and your encouraging words too 🙂
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🙂
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Lovely piece Paul. The pantoum’s repetition reveal the obsessive secretive nature – returning again to ‘they’ and ‘the world’ opposed to ‘me’. All contained within the opening/closing lines – ‘I lived the secrets…’ like a closed box. It’s so clever how the form tells us one thing – while the content tells us another – (inspired, I think I’ll sit down and write one myself). Bravo.
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Thank you very much indeed Peter, so enjoyed the challenge, enjoyed your response very much.
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I love form poetry, and repetition, which you aced. As in villanelles, the challenge is to write a line that bears repeat.
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Many thanks Yvonne, much appreciated.
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“I lived the secrets and cut them into pieces” … how each of us who read those words apply them to our own lives, spinning tales ignited by your words!
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Yes, how we take our own thoughts from it, honoured to be a catalyst Beverly. Thank you so much.
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Exposed to the world, bared in all emptiness… Love it, Paul.
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That is great to hear Amy, thank you.
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I think your pantoum moves through the self-delusion and comes out on the other side?
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Well spotted Liz, yes indeed, starts in self-delusion and encounters realisation, I think we go through this many times depending on age, context etc.
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Merry Christmas and New 🎊 from all of us 💙💙💙💙💙
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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Thank you for sharing Chuck
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Always a pleasure, Paul!! 😊✨✨👍
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You aced the pantoum and your words deserve a bravo! This is superb!
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Thank you so much Eugenia, wow, love your response.
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My pleasure!
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Excellent pantoum response to Peter’s wonderful prompt Paul. Well written. Hope you have a great holiday season, and look forward to reading more of your work in 2021.
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Many thanks Rob, enjoy the festivities, looking forward to reading you in 21.
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Do we ever know?
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No, too many layers I feel.
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Paul, this is a masterpiece of a pantoum. The whole idea of being cut into pieces while trying to see the whole is amazing.
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Wow, thank you Sara, I love your response.
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Very welcome.
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Secrets are often layered like leaves of the cabbage… just like in the pantoun we often go around before reaching the core… well crafted.
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Thank you Bjorn, yes indeed, just like that.
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A wonderful quote to go with your Paul. Not remembering all is blessing in itself.
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Yes, I agree Rupali, some things are best left. 🙂
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the greatest con is self deception, so hard to know where to break free, I think it comes down finding those leverage points where one is confronted with the option to be kind and loving or not to be, I think the greater the mental acrobatics, dogmatic convolutions, or rational algorithms one is going through in order to justify that what they are doing is actually kind even if it does not appear so, the greater the likelihood that one is deceiving oneself. I have a brother who has not spoken to me in a year, yet other siblings tell me that he loves me and that it is somehow for his own good until he finds the right moment, I think he is kidding himself, and I am an expert in activley kiddking onseself, so I should know, your pantoum form fits so well with the content. If memory is a story that we tell one’s self, then the repetition of the narrative comes to us again and again, your last stanza is so freeing, bared and emptied of all expectation, one can truly learn to be one’s true self.
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Lona I so appreciate that you have so wonderfully illustrated the meaning with such a gift of your own vulnerability – thank you so much, and yes he is so kidding himself, and yes, the repetition of stories sure can imprison us.
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Appreciate you Paul. 🙏
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I love the flow of Pantoums
>
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I do like writing them, a great challenge.
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