A Life of Crime
Do we have the power to redeem or is forgive the best we can do
And if so, can one do it to oneself
And if one is trying to redeem oneself
From a life of crime, say
Where comes the courage. Without it
How else would one ever do what is neccesary
The apologies the confessions the belittlement
The admissions even to oneself
Even further from what corner of my cell would courage crawl
Very few of us here are dimwitted they are put somewhere else
Many of us can catch a fly in the hand pierce a heart with a toothbrush
Ruck a fake if that’s all we can find but we can’t find the courage
2 thoughts on "A Life of Crime"
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These are challenging questions exploring depths many never reach.
Favorite line: Even further from what corner of my cell would courage crawl
Humility is the highest form of courage, perhaps. It is a deep and ponderous poem. Is it because if we condemn ourselves, we fear we will not forgive ourselves?
It reminds me of one of my favorite Dickens quote – from Great Expectations. Said by the greatest of self-deceivers and novel star, Pip:
All other swindlers upon earth are nothing to the self-swindlers, and with such pretences did I cheat myself. Surely a curious thing. That I should innocently take a bad half-crown of somebody else’s manufacture, is reasonable enough; but that I should knowingly reckon the spurious coin of my own make, as good money!