Alex Knepper's Newsletter
Alex Knepper's Newsletter
#006
2
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#006

Blame to share
2

Here’s some music to listen to while you read:

Oddly enough, I wasn’t actually listening to this song while I wrote this one but it was running a loop in my head. I don’t know about you, but that tells me I have been watching too many reels and tik toks.

This one comes from a fear of making mistakes. But probably more aptly, a fear of not getting forgiveness for those mistakes. And definitely a frustration about the dynamics of power when there is blame laid on the table. I think we all feel this on a personal but also a worldly level at this time in history.

I couldn’t stop thinking of photoshop as well when I was writing this— in regards to the idea that everything should be absolutely perfect, or else it loses its value. I think in that arena of fashion there has been a shift. But I think the effects of that high mantle have percolated into other areas of our life.

And perhaps effort doesn’t count as much as we thought/hoped it did if the result is undesirable.

to where do we place the issue of blame?

Is it to our left and to our right?

Or is it within the confines of our own hearts.

Hands stained with universal ego

Promises and deadlines broken and past

But who is the one who lands on top

He who lays the blame

Or he who claims it

Claiming is certainly a higher, humble road

but laying it creates a power that blinds

and binds us. Unable to see past the object

unable to claim responsibility for ourselves

we are all victims, we are all faultless

we are all sick of taking blame

and yet expectations of perfect persist

which have no place in the human act

I write poetry but not to rhyme, but isn't

it odd that blame & shame walk a lonely path

together? How quaint. How sickening the dark pit

that grows behind your ribs. And the world keeps

keeping on. And you— you do too.

It all starts with the stories we tell ourselves

but more importantly the lies. The world of

right and wrong has no place for me. And I

no patience for it. For what does effort matter

in a world of consequence.

Not cut so evenly in dichotomic measure.

But rather vague, in relation of the space relative

between you and me.


Now it’s your turn. Have you ever been in a situation where you thought you took more than your fair share of the blame?

Or do you totally disagree with the picture I’ve painted here?

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