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Richard Brady's avatar

Reading this post, my mind flashed back to high school and my newly discovered favorite poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who left us in 2021 at age 101.

Constantly Risking Absurdity(#15)

Constantly risking absurdity

and death

whenever he performs

above the heads

of his audience

The poet like an acrobat

climbs on rime

to a high wire of his own making

and balancing on eyebeams

above a sea of faces

paces his way

to the other side of day

performing entrechats

and sleight-of-foot tricks

and other high theatrics

and all without mistaking

anything

for what it may not be

For he's the super realist

who must perforce perceive

taut truth

before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

with gravity

to start her death-defying leap

And he

a little charleychaplin man

who may or may not catch

her fair eternal form

spreadeagled in the empty air

of existence.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti from A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems copyright 1958

Many Charley Chaplin-like smiles,

Richard

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Cynthia Winton-Henry's avatar

Mistakes are not the problem in my view. Tolerance for feelings of shame is where I need to practice. Shame is an organic design that keeps us connected to groups. It’s serves as a survival strategy for times when we depend in a group body in order to live. I am shame averse and struck by my hidden strategies to avoid shame. I have no problem making mistakes in art. Relationships are different. Softening and moving beyond my feelings of shame helps me open to truth and reparation. Thanks again Shilpa for diving deep!

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