If we're not self-lying,
we're always already dying.
If we're not self-deceiving,
we're always already grieving.
The answer to the existential quiz?
"Good-bye is all there is."
Thank you all for your comments. There is actually an affirming message hidden within my dark little poem: If we can dispense with our sheltering illusions and self-deceptions and own up to our finitude and the finitude of all those with whom we are deeply connected, if we can embrace our existence and that of others as a finite stretch of indeterminate length, then we are freed to live that stretch and relate to others according to what truly matters to us. Accepting the existential "good-bye" frees us for an authentic "hello."
hp_blogger_Robert D. Stolorow: Thank you all for your comments. There is actually an
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/hp_blogger_Robert D. Stolorow/finitude-a-poem-about-aut_b_195169_23828974.html
The trick is to do your dying with joy and love. To hope that maybe you might self deceive yourself a tiny bit less tomorrow. That hope flickered in Beckett., as it did in Swift. that's why they had so much fun.
I disagree with this poem. One can accept the temporal nature of life and still celebrate it. One need not grieve nor sink regretfully into death. This paints a very grim and unwarranted picture of existentialists.
feeltheoffbeat: I disagree with this poem. One can accept the temporal
Violets are blue
Although we are dying
Let's live till we do.