Lies I've Loved

Poetry Collection No. 12, also features Infection and Abdication of Achievement

Hey friend,

Welcome to Poetry Collection No. 12. I’m mucking around with form poems this time. I’ve got a haiku (Lies I’ve Loved) and a villanelle (Abdication of Achievement). Still no villanelle prayers though 🤷🏻‍♀️

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Lies I’ve Loved

No one will know

It’s just because I’m tired

I deserve it

Infection

Oh heart of my heart, my dear, I fear

I’ve infected you with my fear:

it has to be good, it has to be best,

what if I didn’t try my hardest?

Did I transmit fear to you

in the womb? Did terrified

tendrils twist into your genes

when you were a collection of cells?

Did I feed you fear at my breast?

Did you absorb fear from my milk?

Did I teach it to you, slowly, slowly,

through not what I say but what I do?

Oh heart of my heart, my dear,

I can’t carve out my aching,

hurting heart and put it in your chest.

You don’t need to be the best.

I want to inoculate you

with failure. Do the thing.

Fail often, fail fast. Try.

Fear will stunt your growth.

Oh heart of my heart, my dear,

for you, I am willing to fail

and fail and fail again. I will

fail with you. We can fail together,

and not fear, for He is with us.

Abdication of Achievement

I don’t want to optimise

every moment, chasing productive,

but I feel the need to apologise.

I don’t want to organise,

constantly chasing effective—

I’m tired of the call to optimise.

I don’t want to systematise,

constantly chasing constructive.

I’m tired, why should I apologise?

I don’t want to incentivise,

constantly chasing impressive.

I’m over the need to optimise.

I don’t want to miss butterflies

because I idolise effective.

No longer will I apologise.

I will not miss the moonrise

because I idolise productive.

I refuse the call to optimise

I do not apologise.

Tell me in the comments:

1. What lies have you loved?

2. Do you idolise productivity and achievement?

3. How do you recognise this in your life, how do you notice when it is shifting into unhelpful?

4. How do you fight these idols in your life?

If you enjoyed this collection, please consider sharing it with a friend who is also abdicating achievement idols 💛

I’ll be back in your inbox next month with The Anger Remix, a collection of poems all about anger from the past couple of years.