Dear Joe:

You are welcome to write “all this bitter twisted vengeful stuff” because it is really cathartic for you and you are in your element when you just pour out without worrying about how your writing will be perceived. So far I did not perceive any “ensuing ugliness” in your writing. Instead I was delighted to read.

My thoughts on  Truth Spits In Your Face:

You wrote about people who like to show off “their gold”, achievements, careers, fake smiles, people who present themselves as “pure as the snow,” as god’s favorites,  but, you wrote “there is nothing beneath the surface”, and I like this expression: “Wait/ They are not human/So they wouldn’t understand/The affliction”- I like the way you phrased it.

You wrote: “We’re beneath them… /Because we don’t have it all”- this is the message in Marketing, fed by people’s beliefs already there and encouraging these beliefs further. The (false) belief is: your worth is equal to what you have, what you possess. But this is not the sum total of this false belief. The complete false belief as I understand it is:

Your worth is equal to what other people think you are worth. They think that your worth is equal to what you have.

I like this phrasing: “It’s a risky business/When you are so high up/Because it’s a long fall”- I like it very much. And I like this even more: “You will never find your storybook ending/Your happily ever after”- correct. I agree. I concur. I appreciate your thinking, Joe, and your effective, powerful, creative expression.

And I understand your anger at people who elevate themselves, in their own minds, by lowering you/ others.

Interesting, this: “I’m having imaginary conversations with them/…Pretending that they are the good guys”- this makes me think that part of you believe the message about personal worth. Clearly, at the least, you once believed it. Who hasn’t.

Like other false beliefs, this false belief holds us captive, oppressed. You called the people expressing outwardly this beliefs “My captors/My oppressors”- part of you believes the false belief, is what I am finding so interesting at this part of the poem.

You wrote: “They thought/I was a puppet/So rigid, easily controllable/…Because I only speak the truth/…You don’t get to speak for me/Decide for me”- this is beautiful, magnificent. You are telling the truth, that what they promote is untrue, what I referred to above as a false belief.

But their false belief poisoned you, harmed you, and you continue to express your anger. You wrote: “You can have all my poison/ My shame”- the belief, the false belief that you are less worthy than them because you don’t have the things they have.

I think what you do have is “a mind to call (your) own”, Joe, and there is absolutely nothing more valuable than a mind that is your own.

What a magnificent experience for me, reading your poem this morning. Thank you Joe, hope to read more from this very valuable mind of yours.

anita