by Eric Chaet
I didn’t choose camouflage or invisibility.
I’ve tried, all along
to make what I think manifest
to behave as I think I should
however contrary to custom
to let everyone who wished
see that I was pursuing goals
they believe are unattainable.
But I was only one
& how I appeared was discounted
as an imagined figment
or temporary insanity
or an instance of this or that
doomed religion or political movement.
Without shaving my beard
or changing into more conventional clothes
I find myself allied with brown sparrows
who duck out of sight
among shadows, leaves, & branches
with rabbits, mice, deer
& timid boys & girls
& intimidated subordinates everywhere
engaged in every occupation
with all who have failed
or feel they’re failing—
& the stampeding so-called successes
talk clever bullshit on TV
& allocate resources
to maintain the current
& develop the next round of outrages
as tho' I’d never struggled or spoken.
You see a bit of me here & now
but soon you’ll be otherwise occupied.
If you remember, then, what you’ve seen
& decipher (which is easy) what it means
I’ll gladly be of greater service to you
than those blinded by what they expect
can imagine.
[more by Eric HERE]
5 comments:
Auban--stay with haiku. Its specificities, insight, and poetry are far more ennobling. My sympathies to Eric, but really, this is all too maudlin, self-pitying, and narcissistic; at the spectrum's other side of this poem is the destructiveness of Donald Trump. His lusts for validation through recognition are met with worldwide ribald ridicule and contempt. Eric, depression and rejection and alienation do not have fifty shades of gray--only one.
Well, what he writes is authentic - which is quite a rarity these days. And in our society of Multiple Choice, there are many shades of self-pity/self-justification. I don't think he's narcissistic, but sadly introspective. Unfortunately, he seeks validation, which, in its worst form, is Trumpery. Validation is a fancy word for worthiness, and, in a money-economy, the only worth and worthiness are shekels & dollars. Why should anyone "be worth" anything ? We are bags of shit who die and feed worms or are consumed in rather expensive fires.
PS I have some good haikai coming up - inspired by Issa, who, though "admired", is actually eschewed outside Japan. Non-Japanese like to play about with the haiku form in the same way as women of a certain age and class might take up Japanese Flower-Arranging. Haikai can have teeth - and rotten ones at that !
Validation is desire for worthiness from the outside in whatever form and from whatever source self "lacks" and these lacks are self-felt and or perceived. Who needs validation? The person who doesn't value himself/herself.
Yes, of course. I have always wondered why people sought 'validation'. Maybe because of an 'inner blindness' ?
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