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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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Who What When and Why

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

Today, perhaps more than ever, we are a species caught in a dilemma of contradictions as to who we should be, and who we really are. (Image by Odin AI)

Saturday, January 10, 2026


Poem Artwork

 Who When What and Why

 

 

Who

 is the silhouette standing at the edge of a launch pad,

not a name, but a constellation of choices,

a cracked pane catching yesterday’s light.

You are the architect and the ruin,

the ink and redaction,

the question that folds into itself like origami wings.

 

When

is now, not the ticking clock,

but the thunderhead before rain,

the hush before a symphony erupts,

the long countdown of every misstep and triumph

stacked like rocket fuel beneath your feet.

This moment is a fuse, lit by the friction of all that came before,

and you are the spark that cannot be postponed.

 

What

 is the mirror fractured into infinite selves,

each reflection a version of you that believed it was the final draft.

But every draft was a rehearsal for this breath,

this heartbeat,

this inevitable unveiling of the design that was never flawed,

only unfinished.

You are the echoes of originates,

the clay and the kiln, the sculpture still warm from the fire.

 

Why

because the universe is a cartographer

drawing maps on on parchment that fades,

holding back the demise of a perfect coordinate.

Because the grand design is not a straight road

but a spiral staircase,

and every step is the only step that could exist.

Because you were always meant to stand here, on this trembling platform,

ready for the next jettison of time and purpose.

 

So I ask you:

What is the Who, When, What, and Why of you?

Can you accept it as perfect?

The description of your persona being just as it should be?



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Reviewed by John Herlihy
Reviewed on January 11, 2026
These are the universal questions that many people today are reluctant to probe or even ask themselves. Your poem comes as a welcome challenge.

Reviewed by Ruan Mills
Reviewed on January 11, 2026
Word perfect ; May the 4s be with you! x

Reviewed by Ronald Hull
Reviewed on January 10, 2026
Put that way, I've arrived. Comfortable with no money from writing, but astounded on the number of hits reaching 230,000 for a single story that I posted here many, many years ago.

Am I on the launchpad? Only time will tell.

Ron


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