Seriousness Means a Death

[rowens]

Seriousness Means a Death


Hold a feeling right there,
long enough to become a thought;
whatever it is, a dog, 
a spouse, a parent, a dream.
Anything that can become a thought 
will die.

Someone came up with tragedy
in their mind,
for certain centuries, a trick
was played to ascertain comfort
up until a melancholy decadence,
and then all became discovered
and weak.

Minds strong in their collective 
weakness sharp as hangnails
see the point in everything
and softly wither, being not 
one who shall be fooled.

Wit unhumored,
perspectives holy as x-rays
see the softness as a surrender
to reality, a diet of the most
literal nutrition,
the very word 'hurt' demands respect
and pain.

The demand is innocence armed,
an enlightened form of righteousness.
Right, or wrong for a reason.
Reason, a reason for
everything.

[dukealien]

Seriousness Means a Death


Hold a feeling right there,
long enough to become a thought;
whatever it is, a dog, 
a spouse, a parent, a dream.
Anything that can become a thought 
will die.

Someone came up with tragedy
in their mind,
for certain centuries, a trick
was played to ascertain comfort
up until a melancholy decadence,
and then all became discovered
and weak.

Minds strong in their collective 
weakness sharp as hangnails
see the point in everything
and softly wither, being not 
one who shall be fooled.

Wit unhumored,
perspectives holy as x-rays
see the softness as a surrender
to reality, a diet of the most
literal nutrition,
the very word 'hurt' demands respect
and pain.

The demand is innocence armed,
an enlightened form of righteousness.
Right, or wrong for a reason.
Reason, a reason for
everything.

Beautifully reasoned and expressed.  A (the?) literally existential problem is that we cannot see without interpreting - that is, without attaching image to pre-existing reason.  (And then pretending the image preceded the reason - as if observation could take place without interpretation.)

[Torkelburger]

I like it. I'm getting an allusion to Jean-Jacques Rousseau here with feeling becoming thought, enlightened form of righteousness, reason...

[rowens]

Thought is the Pontius Pilate of sensation.

[Mark A Becker]

Hello rowens-
I have subtracted all but the lines that struck me:

Hold a feeling right there,
long enough to become a thought;

for certain centuries, a trick
was played to ascertain comfort

Minds strong in their collective
weakness sharp as hangnails

perspectives holy as x-rays

the very word 'hurt' demands respect
and pain.

The demand is innocence armed,
an enlightened form of righteousness.

As I write this a hawk is hovering on a thermal, over the field behind my house. I view that hawk the way I view certain lines within your poems- sometimes I'm more interested in the things that stand out than I am in their surroundings. 

[rowens]

Tragedy and comedy is the same. Laughing and crying is the same.

The background and the foreground is the same. The things I mean and the things I don't is the same.