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Odin odin@aflx.com

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Books
· Perceptions

· ECHOSIS

· Prosetry at Work

· Said and Unsaid - Vol 1

· 3 WAY MIRROR


Short Stories
· Patience Waning

· Ladle Lines (A prosetry memory)

· A Gentle Man

· Pacing Love's Journey

· Gratitude

· A Sticky Conversation

· Blazing Now and Then

· Vulnerable Captivity

· The Kite That Would Not Bow

· Time


Articles
· War and Peace

· Desperation Breeds Desperation

· Preference Manifest

· Innocent Guilt

· Barbed Isolation

· A Place...

· Sanity's Loss

· Organs Anonymous

· Fatuous Beyond Absurdity

· Truth is One


Poetry
· The Life-long Pernicious Evil

· Cherishing Sounds of Silence

· Understanding the Unexplainable

· Reality of Another Kind

· Finding Trust Again

· Aromalicious Memories

· A Jungle-rain Pastorale

· Sediment Within the Soul

· Life's Enormous Green Chest

· Roadkill Memoriam

         More poetry...

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Wayward Honesty

by Odin odin@aflx.com — Read all 3,869 poems by Odin odin@aflx.com

As we grow older, some of us are gifted with a messenger of sorts. For me, it has been from a quiet, yet powerful muse, one who showed me how my little white lies, my manipulations and ill-won conquests of the past were toxic and slowly trying to destroy me.

Monday, September 11, 2023


Poem Artwork

 

Wayward Honesty

 

How tangled and complicated our efforts to face the truth.
Like the seaweed of a lonely shore, we endure this constant return,
the ebb and flow of our state of mind.

Hollowed out in the once healthy marrow of our integrity
the tunnels of our synaptic ventures forever provide
hooks and twists, bringing us ever closer
to the languid exhaustion of effort.

To avoid the pain of lying,
the unknown of deceitful consequences,
we often couch our expressions with
smiles of duplicity,
body language of control,
and the veiled eyes of innocence.

Is it any wonder that our mendacious behavior
creating the waste and pollution we gorge on,
imbibing the very disease of both mind and body,
finally brings us to a premature end?

For how can our deteriorating essence ever recover
without acknowledging the skein we often unwittingly
allow to fray our rectitude?



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Reviewed by Diana Legun
Reviewed on September 13, 2023
This image feels like a fitting match for your ‘Wayward Honesty.’ The darkness, the sliminess, the tangle. The phrase “…languid exhaustion of effort.” So fitting a line leading into the next part, about the antithesis of ‘effort,’ the slackness of noneffort. Part of what makes your writing so compelling is your use of creative vocabulary, ‘mendacious instead of ‘lazy,’ …. and the descriptiveness of “…pollution we gorge on,” now THAT is a stick-in-the-teeth four words. Power in the form of language can be mighty and can be mighty beautiful. ~~ the other Diana

Reviewed by Diana Wiles
Reviewed on September 12, 2023
There is such a pleasing honesty in this piece…
Perhaps we all could benefit from deep self reflection.
That inner voice is often so veiled, we hardly notice,
convincing us that it is authentically necessary…
Who is kidding who?…

Best wishes,
Diana…


Reviewed by John Herlihy
Reviewed on September 11, 2023
A powerful question at the end of this in-depth self-exploration of all the lies and deceit that we can comfort ourselves with, one to set the reader thinking of themselves and their own plight, their own waywardness and self-deceit that goes the way of the world.

Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on September 11, 2023
I'm so glad you recognized the direction you had been taking was toxic and changed for the much better.

From the very beginning I realized that honesty was the best policy, and only lied to protect the innocent. I was brutally honest at times that may have lost me friends. It's nice to have a clear conscience and not worry about what I did and when I did.

Ron

Reviewed by Richard Cederberg
Reviewed on September 11, 2023
Disconnected dying seaweed washed up on the shore. A good visual metaphor for your message. Sometimes it takes the better part of a lifetime to be able to look in the mirror and actually see the real you. I salute you for shedding the masks and buffing off the patina to let your 'true you' shine. This spoke to me. ~~~O~~~


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