I am not honest when I write.
Well, yes, when I write, it is honest.
But it is what I do not write about that
Reveals falsehood.
Things I do not write about:
Fungus/ Dissatisfaction/ Sloth/
Decline/ Shame/ Anxiety/ Cowardice
The reader would never know,
Nor does the acquaintance, the friend, even the partner-
Who knows then? The old cat? The vacuum cleaner
as it sucks up old skin and detritus? Do I know?
In my writing I am looking up at the sky,
While I sink.
pencilonmybackporch 
So interesting how while listing all you don’t write about, you honestly share. The most honest line: Do I know? I find that it is only through writing that I start to glimpse some about what I avoid writing about. Such a strong ending – the image of looking up at the sky as you sink. And so honest!
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I think many of us write while wearing rose colored glasses. The state of the world can be so depressing that to write about it without a glimmer of hope would eventually take its toll on us. Yo have shown honesty in your writing.
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Sending you peaceful thoughts with gratitude for the way live your life—and your writing life—with such grace. I’m always touched for the better. From my experience, pain of loss doesn’t go away, but it eases over time and leaves us with tenderness.
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Those last two lines:
“In my writing I am looking up at the sky,
While I sink.”
make me so sad.
I want to say more, but don’t know quite what right now.
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I don’t want you to worry-there is a little poetic license at work 🙂
Se you soon!
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I’m not worried, but it made me think of the creative process and how we often doubt ourselves. Parts of the poem reminded me of my architecture days that were often fraught with worries about being good enough – where I often thought my work was trite, was like fungus, wasn’t honest. I’m not sure that is what your poem is about, but that’s how it struck me.
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I appreciate the big truth you’re telling with so few words in this piece. There is a pushpull in my thinking, and I think in the public sphere right now, that your slice gets at. There is a lot of pressure to wear the Facebook mask at all times, as if it’s not polite to be anything but unrelentingly positive. “No one wants to read your complaining,” is the message. Except I don’t think that’s true. I love to read a well-told truth.
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I love your title. Sometimes I worry that I am too honest when I write and then there are times when I don’t write what I want to or need to write. This writing thing is such an emotional process.
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Wow- I had to read this twice, no three times to get its full effect. Truth vs. what we present to be true. You are definitely giving me food for thought. Love the ending!
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