Attempting to explain why.
Aug. 25th, 2010 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There, new poem for the first time in a couple of months. Since May, I think. Of course, it is a poem I started back in March. But still new.
Back in March I was arguing with someone who was being all Wrong On The Internet. Hours of pointless conversation later, I realised that time would have been better spent putting my thoughts into verse. And promptly started to do so (but less promptly finished.)
I'm not happy with it; there are too many unspecific pronouns, and the verse distorts the argument rather than supporting it. For a start. But it's done, and not complete rubbish, I think. I do like the eighteenth line.
Some people tend to fear the things they can't with ease control.
They'd much prefer a life that follows all the time from rules
which are set out with care and which can point them to a goal.
To help to make the choice easy there are various schools
of thought to which one can subscribe and which do more than guide.
These can be seen as giving one a set of useful tools
that can manipulate the world. And so people have tried
to use these thoughts to bind their fears, to keep them safely chained.
But it is not just fears that end up being thus denied.
For anything too powerful must also be restrained;
Strength gained from any other source will be seen as a threat
since to the ones who prize control it cannot be explained.
the world becomes about just fighting fear and they forget
the simple things aside from fear that have the power to move
us all. Forgotten things - like love or sex - can then upset
the image of a world controlled. These things they disapprove
of need to be repressed. When tragedy comes down on one
who's loved or followed through on lust it's never hard to prove
- or so it seems - that this is where the tragedy begun.
From this they argue that their vicious words are really kind,
they find justification for the way they shame and shun
one who has done no more that act on things that they are blind
to, and they say things like "We did everything that we could."
Thus placing all the blame on one who needn't be maligned.
Defend the system and themselves: they claim "we set a good
example, and provided a strong home for her." That's not
strength at all. You've been ruled by your fear, misunderstood
the world, and then driven by doubt you made the choice to allot
the blame and shame and punishment to someone very dear.
The explanation that you had of the all the world forgot
some simple facts. By focusing on what you feared 'twas clear
that this was where your power lay. You should have known that strength
can never come from fear, it comes from love in spite of fear.
Back in March I was arguing with someone who was being all Wrong On The Internet. Hours of pointless conversation later, I realised that time would have been better spent putting my thoughts into verse. And promptly started to do so (but less promptly finished.)
I'm not happy with it; there are too many unspecific pronouns, and the verse distorts the argument rather than supporting it. For a start. But it's done, and not complete rubbish, I think. I do like the eighteenth line.
Some people tend to fear the things they can't with ease control.
They'd much prefer a life that follows all the time from rules
which are set out with care and which can point them to a goal.
To help to make the choice easy there are various schools
of thought to which one can subscribe and which do more than guide.
These can be seen as giving one a set of useful tools
that can manipulate the world. And so people have tried
to use these thoughts to bind their fears, to keep them safely chained.
But it is not just fears that end up being thus denied.
For anything too powerful must also be restrained;
Strength gained from any other source will be seen as a threat
since to the ones who prize control it cannot be explained.
the world becomes about just fighting fear and they forget
the simple things aside from fear that have the power to move
us all. Forgotten things - like love or sex - can then upset
the image of a world controlled. These things they disapprove
of need to be repressed. When tragedy comes down on one
who's loved or followed through on lust it's never hard to prove
- or so it seems - that this is where the tragedy begun.
From this they argue that their vicious words are really kind,
they find justification for the way they shame and shun
one who has done no more that act on things that they are blind
to, and they say things like "We did everything that we could."
Thus placing all the blame on one who needn't be maligned.
Defend the system and themselves: they claim "we set a good
example, and provided a strong home for her." That's not
strength at all. You've been ruled by your fear, misunderstood
the world, and then driven by doubt you made the choice to allot
the blame and shame and punishment to someone very dear.
The explanation that you had of the all the world forgot
some simple facts. By focusing on what you feared 'twas clear
that this was where your power lay. You should have known that strength
can never come from fear, it comes from love in spite of fear.