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Richard Lloyd Cederberg

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Member Since: May, 2006

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Books
· A NEW RACE OF HuMANS

· Between the Cracks

· A Monumental Journey - first edition cover

· Beyond Understanding

· The Underground River

· In Search of the First Tribe

· A Monumental Journey - 3rd Edition


Short Stories
· Rejected (a curse or a blessing)

· The Visions of Saoirse Gilbride....

· An Irresistible Transformation...

· Surfing on Silent Skies...

· Doorway...

· The Strange Case of Kicky Cano...

· A Matter of Perspective 2...

· A Surprising Discovery....

· 10 North Waverly Place...

· Old Friendships (not forgotten)


Articles
· Thanks Giving...

· Kennedy and Lincoln...

· The Art of Poetic Prose...

· What Makes a Poet Authentic...

· Paul Harvey’s ‘If I Were The Devil’ transcript- 1965

· Direct Characterization

· Aphorisms (a collection)

· Hey Cortana...(2019)

· Origin, or Destiny?

· Stream of Consciousness


Poetry
· When the Heart is Flawed...

· Catching Happiness...

· The Fragments of Hatred...

· 'Malama Ka Aina'...

· On Open Wings...

· Generations....

· Dewdrops....

· A Gradual Decline…

· Like Wildflowers and Weeds…

· In Nature’s Design…

         More poetry...

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A Struggling Mans Reasoning...

by Richard Lloyd Cederberg — Read all 280 poems by Richard Lloyd Cederberg

PORTRAYAL 57. Characterization. Never really knowing where each day would take him; his life had become something of an oddity. For many years he’d been trapped in a swirl of dark prejudices and hatreds, and also given to the kinds of mood swings that alienated him from most relationships. Today, as he stares into the sempiternal void he considers his only muse, he again tries to find peace with how he sees himself, how he sees others, and with how he wants to be seen. Struggling incessantly for any kind of peaceful resolve, he is struck with the idea that ‘normality’ is mostly an unattainable concept. Being the great neurosis of modern societies - a standard for the masses, not for the individual - he arbitrarily concludes that every human being is corrupted to one degree or another. Notwithstanding the psychoneurotic aspects of this reasoning, he is still endowed with enough rational intelligence to know that this kind of philosophizing could easily be construe d as self-deception by subjective reasoning.

Monday, December 1, 2025


Poem Artwork
So…. the man struggles,
.
and each day
as the wind howls,
and the water swirls,
his thinking
filters through
the moments like
sand through a sieve,
immersing him in conditions
that only augment the audits of
his stubbornly unyielding heart...
.
Prone to indifference,
he gazes into
each eddying context
which, according to his
own stuttering attempts
at understanding life, are
rife with the unnecessary...
.
Hoping to simplify whatever lesson
is being doled him, the man struggles
and strains against a rage of impulses…
.
And though he drinks
himself carefree,
he endures,
not only for himself,
but for all the excuses
he’s abstracted (over time)
that represent the lessor parts
of a life he wants to keep hidden...
.
And being settled to dissemble his
neuroticism as being inconsequential,
he zips up his nonchalance like a jacket,
and then bolsters his pride, as if all the facets
of his being are as they should be...
.
His reasoning today is that surfaces
were what mattered most, and he was
laudably skilled at creating semblances...
.
From now on he
would appear as a
deep lake, (elemental,
unadorned, approachable)
a beautiful planar surface that
might hide his terrible struggles,
one that others were easily drawn to,
one they could look at en-passant,
or dip their hands into without
being scuppered…
.
He was
reachable
now (he reasoned)
especially to those who
often poo-pooed his collection
of psycho-sick knickknacks that
offended most everyone.
.
Now,
as pleasantly
benignant words
are freed daily to the
few who crossed his path,
he’ll smile and smooth the lapels
of a freshly tailored being, in anticipation
of his once troubled life becoming normal at last...
.
A week later, as he was staring once again into the void, smoking and stewing, he heard a voice asking: “What do you think being normal really means?
Puffing nervously, he snarls back: “Who f*%&.$# knows!”
“Then ask yourself….
Do your needs move you to deceive others to appear as someone you’re not?
Do your needs move you away from people and keep you isolated and alone?
Do your needs move you towards others to love them, and to help them?”
.
© richard lloyd cederberg
10/2025

         A NEW RACE OF HuMANS



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Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on December 1, 2025
That was beautifully written with great insight into what constitutes a struggling man. I don't read, but I find that most of the protagonists in movies that I watch tend to be struggling men. For great art seems to come from great struggle. I guess. The rest is boring.

Your best stanza…

"And being settled to dissemble his
neuroticism as being inconsequential,
he zips up his nonchalance like a jacket,
and then bolsters his pride, as if all the facets
of his being are as they should be..."

Ron


New Poetry by Richard Lloyd Cederberg
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