Diana C.’s 30-Day Poetry Challenge | Day 30: Ignorance is not bliss
Tanka of Growth and Evolution
“We Are Our Souls, and From That Perspective, We Are Unlimited Possibilities” — Keri Mangis
November 3, 2023 note:
“Living is easy with eyes closed Misunderstanding all you see It’s getting hard to be someone But it all works out It doesn’t matter much to me” — The Beatles Strawberry Fields Forever
In particular, take 7 from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Super Deluxe Edition), which just came on my YouTube Music feed, and as I listened and read along with the lyrics, this song that I have loved for 45 years took on new meaning for me and reminded me of this story with tanka that I posted two and a half years ago before I had any subscribers.
Ignorance lacks care Knowledge lends powerful share Bliss can my ass kiss Narcissus loved his image Souls express expand learning
This tanka goes hand in hand with yesterday’s contraindicated response to the day-29 prompt “grounding desires in reality.”
Ostrich head in sand Misshapen reality Minds better in sky Freedom from society Breathe life from Tree of Knowledge
Day 29 Decoder Ring Linked Here
People who believe that their ignorance leads to bliss care mostly about themselves. They do not comprehend that knowledge provides powerful energy that they can share for the betterment of everyone. It is a selfish trait for which I said in the third line what they can do with it — and I was being kind. Today's tanka also builds off of:
Anger has value Signals moral core raided My space invaded Blood boiling yet controlled rage Saber of Light rules the page
That I easily could have written in response to Diana’s prompt on Monday about alchemizing anger.
I do not recall experiencing such blood-boiling anger as I felt towards the publishing editor and her defensive, patronizing, dismissive and narcissistic posture [towards antisemitism]. … I questioned whether I needed to calm down and not react out of anger. Upon reflection, I acted properly — I needed to heed and respect my anger, not doubt its authenticity and reasonableness.
I mentioned then that an appropriate policy would emerge from the ashes. It has. Dr Mehmet Yildiz published:
Regarding content that propagandizes or fosters the continuation of stereotypes based on race or creed or gender beyond what Medium guidelines may deem to be hate speech, the editors of ILLUMINATION Integrated Publications (IIP) will reject any work that is written primarily to demonize or diminishing the value of another group of people. We will not tolerate such speech whether blatant or implied — whether couched as fact or opinion. We believe that our message of inclusiveness is furthered by erring on the side of excluding a piece that some but not all may find to be hate-filled. The editors of IIP are all from a diverse background of people, and though we occasionally disagree, we recognize we are all human, regardless of our cultural history. Having an argument against a governmental or philosophical policy is appreciated when discussed in a thoughtful and respectful manner but we have zero tolerance for content that targets a specific group, gender, or creed. Unsubstantiated claims or attempts to make broad assumptions against an entire culture will not be tolerated.
Thanks to Stuart Englander and Marcus for their [] formulating [the] policy.
The fourth line of the tanka reflects the ignorance displayed by narcissists projecting and protecting an image of themselves not grounded in reality. The fifth line evokes:
The fifth line also evokes credit to S M Mamunur Rahman of
for his fabulous interview with Keri.
A belief in reincarnation is more than just a “wow, I was a princess in a previous life” kind of thing. That’s a boring and elementary understanding of the purpose of reincarnation. Reincarnation is a way of understanding that growth takes time, evolution takes time, healing takes time. None of this work is meant for a single life. It takes many lives. If we slow down and realize this connection, we can forgive ourselves and others for not “getting there” in some superficial timeline. We can be patient with ourselves. And have compassion for those parts of ourselves that we can’t quite understand.
If I ever give a warning about a spiritual path, that’s the one I give: there’s no going back. But, you won’t want to, either. Once you are living a life with greater awareness and soul expression, any other life would be so stifling, so confining, I can’t imagine it’d be possible.
In Rama I create,
