POEM: A Truth Foul

If you should believe
The hole
And nothing
A butt the
You may well be
Full if it
Perfectly primed
For letting go
Unable to be taken
Any more
By a singular won
Given
By an other

This poem, like many of my , can be understood (or misunderstood) many ways.  Mostly, this is a poem about both and .  If we are so full of ourselves in our ability to ascertain the and we are skeptical enough to find believing nothing as a dominant mode, then we may very well dangerous to others seeking truth.  is the blinding of our own of truth as the dominant mode.  This is typically matched by a substantial discounting of others' of truth.  is producing and the enemy of is able to blossom when our is genuinely open to others' experiences and whatever current we hold is alive enough to grow in the light of the living truth in other living beings.  This is typically paired with a humble toward our own limited body of experiences.  I see true as a right-sizing of our place and role in the world (and ).  True , as most commonly viewed, is not being too big or oversized.  Of course, true is also served by us rising up to whatever matches our particular endowment of agency and .  Being too small is a vote for humiliation, not humility.  The line in the poem, “Unable to be taken,” similarly cuts both ways.  “Being taken,” as duped or cheated, is perhaps one of the most unwelcome and betraying realities in .  I suspect that it is difficult to overestimate the effort we will employ to avoid such situations.  Similarly true, “being taken,” as in being taken by a lover or of overwhelming , can be profoundly transforming in previously unimagined ways.  I think that the openness and inherently in “being taken” inextricably links both forms/meanings.  Hardening oneself to being duped or cheated likewise hardens one's ability and likelihood of enthrallment.  By cutting ourselves off from and , we rob ourselves of its upsides, in essence throwing the baby out with the bathwater.  I posit that living a that is not adept at being taken is a life that to that same degree is not fully lived.   May you find hope and enthrallment that is worth infinitely more than whatever you have been cheated out of life.

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