I ... entered the poem of life, whose purpose is ... simply to witness the beauties of the world, to discover the many forms that love can take. (Barabara Blackman in 'Glass After Glass')

These poems are works in progress and may be updated without notice. Nevertheless copyright applies to all writings here and all photos (which are either my own or used with permission). Thank you for your comments. I read and appreciate them all, and reply here to specific points that seem to need it — or as I have the leisure. Otherwise I reciprocate by reading and commenting on your blog posts as much as possible.

2 December 2016

Tempted to Tell

It was a good dinner.
Afterwards we settled back
over coffee, and one said:
‘I sometimes think ETs
must have discovered us
by now – don't you?’

How that triggered my inner
cringing fear. Feeling a little sick
I kept so quiet, the dead
might have been more voluble. Jeez!
How could I say I knew this,
and very personally too?

I have been called a sinner
full of wicked lies, my soul black.
And worse than that: raving mad.
After enough reactions like these,
you learn the ways to pass
for normal – never mind what’s true.

************

A little green man? No, taller and thinner.
Limbless, featureless, my friend Kondark
resembled a floating column; had
a good brain though. But please,
where do you find a physicist who’d choose
to telepathise with an alien. Like who?

So he went back home, no-one a winner.
He’d wanted to help us, but needed to talk
with a fellow-scientist. That sort of head,
on earth, does not tend to telepathise
with alien visitors – can’t encompass
that reality, even though it’s not new.

And who could I have told? The stigma
is still too strong. They remain in the dark
the rationalists (so-called) – still led
by terror of the unknown. They’d seize
me and shut me up in the nut-house.…
(Yes I kid you, of course; you know I do.)


Written in response to Poets United's Midweek Motif: Social Stigma. 

15 comments:

  1. Well, I was in a small group that stood on my back porch for some 40 minutes in 1977, watching a round craft of some sort hovering just above the trees.....there was NO sound of a motor or anything that on earth would be needed to hold it aloft. It hovered in that spot for 40 minutes and then silently glided off sideways.

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    1. Thank you! I have seen such things as that, too.

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    2. And, come to think of it – yes, always silent.

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  2. I believe, we need such powers to balance the world, Rosemary! Magic has vital energies...! Beautfully written.

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  3. This is beautifully emotive, Rosemary ❤️ I too feel that there are things out there in this world which are unknown to us and which in turn create doubt and fear. The same can be said for people too. Those of us who stand out and are different, are often shunned by the rest. (Lets just say it's their loss)❤️


    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  4. Learning to pass - yes.. i can relate for sure.. but as long as we know the truth and never doubt it within ourselves that is what really counts.. i do hope so

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  5. Haha! Wouldn't it be wonderful if all Aliens were so benign and bountiful--and if all of them first met those filled with wonder who would protect them from the scalpels of science and guns of government? This is a very neat poem! I just saw the film "Arrival" which teased my mind with this possibility. I've been among women who have seen UFOs and go back to the same places again and again, but I do not believe I am such a witness. (But then, I do have God.)

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  6. Yes, there are things about which sometimes one realizes it is best to be silent as no one would understand. I think many must 'pass' in their own way...sometimes it is for the better.... I like this poem, Rosemary, and its lesson. So glad you wrote it.

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  7. Well related tale. What would we really do?

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  8. " never mind what’s true."...the line comes like a whip...wow...wow..

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  9. I feel sorry for people who do not recognise the existence of 'otherness 'outside our human realm.Existence must be a very arid,one dimensional experience.
    I don't necessarily believe in little green men or space craft but there is a presence here in other forms (most of which we are unaware of)which animals are aware of and are more attuned to than we are(particularly cats)

    In humans prescience is a gift which probably is inherited from ancestors...manifests itself in different ways...connected to spirituality and religions.A person who is gifted with prescience usually is aware of it from a very early age.Doesn't talk about it because they know it makes them very different.In fact it is more vivid and effective before adolescence... before the child decides to block it in order to fit into the herd. It is always present to a degree...not
    pleasant disconcerting and not something that one would wish to cultivate (so I am told)

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    1. Thank you for this detailed and thoughtful response. Much appreciated! I have written in prose about the kind of experiences you describe, at this link, if you would like to have a look:
      http://owntrumpet.blogspot.com.au/2016/11/refusing-magic.html

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  10. As the Bard said: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." :-)
    Good one, Rosemary!

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