Zumwalt Poems Online

Your anonymous blog

Your anonymous blog

To my face you are kindness itself:
cheerful, always upbeat,

but in your anonymous blog
you rip me apart.

You press your thumb and forefinger on each side,
hold, pull and rend,
and rupture my very innards.

You focus on me,
my life, my words, my actions and my body
like you are a Celestron Telescope
searching for every single crater and irregularity.

With an Ultima Barlow lens
and your Leica M9 18MP
You grab each natural image
and then rearrange reality with
your precious, perversely pesuasive, periscopic Photoshop technique.

poetic liberty has leased you a license to assassinate,
humiliate,
decimate,
invalidate,
severely lambaste,
and mockingly castrate
everything that I identify as me.

literary freedom allows you to liberally fabricate,
mutilate,
denigrate,
incriminate,
scathingly castigate,
and maliciously urinate
on what others think of me.

To my face you are kind beyond selflessness,
but on your online beat,
your anonymous malevolence
sets you apart
from all the others
that have ever wanted
to write me up,
put me down,
and publish me out.

— Zumwalt (2011)

Comments on: "Your anonymous blog" (20)

  1. very well written and great poem.. most people hide behind the words they publish on the internet because they are cowards and i believe this poem has described them very well..
    🙂

    ooh and by the way( “hold, pull and rend,”,) i think the rend is supposed to be rant. or maybe it means a different thing than what i’m thinking.. :-).. just thought i should give you a heads up

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  2. anchica,

    Thanks much!

    Thanks on the thoughts on “rant” and “rend”. Although I like “rant”,and it fits nicely in this context, I think “rend” was maybe what the author wanted: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/rend

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    • I bet everyone who reads this wonders secretly if it was written about them. LOL.

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      • mareymercy,

        Great point! I think there is probably many cases of this. To err is human, to complain about it is even more so, to publish in a blog, more human yet, and then to complain about the offending blog most human of all!

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  3. Thanks for taking the time out to read my blog. Thought I would return the favour and I’m impressed!

    D

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  4. Hello, thank you for visiting my blog, I am so amazed to read this poem of your it is wonderful. So deep and so honest . I am sure many people who read it will indeed wonder if it is aimed at them because it is so well written. and direct. It certainly pulled me up sharply. I hate bullying of any kind , I was bullied at school and even though that was years ago I still can feel the pain. I get so angry when I read about cyber bullying and how it has driven a poor soul to suicide. I am proud that you enjoyed my poem and I hope to visit your site again soon and feel free to drop by mine any time you will be welcome. Be well be happy and power to your pen. willow

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    • willow,

      I really appreciate you taking the time to communicate your reaction so fully. This comment of yours is really special and very expressive. Thanks so very much!

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  5. No, thank you for writing such an extraordinary poem .

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  6. I love that last line.

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  7. grahamatbedlam said:

    Thank you.

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  8. grahamatbedlam said:

    The anonymity makes this poem personal to anyone sitting with a keyboard in front of the most powerful social tool we have. The internet. The temptation to do ill is overwhelming. In the developing world it is used to defend from tyranny. In the west it is used for personal grievances. I’m going to start writing letters again, signed with my name.

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  9. I love your poems, this one in particular. They are very honest and beautiful. Keep up the great work! 🙂

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  10. I think everyone has left most beautiful words before me to express admiration for the poem here, so, despite the repetition- Bravo! It was lovely to read, the word choice is excellent and the emotions that the sentences evoke can be part of anyone’s soul and heart!

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  11. Broken Sparkles,

    It’s a great pleasure to see someone comment on an older post as this so rarely happens. The Zumwalt poems that I posted at the launch of this site sit pretty much neglected, so it gives me hope that when someone visits a post from a month ago that maybe one day some of the poems posted in July of 2011 will also get new visitors. 🙂

    Like

  12. 🙂 Every blogger who reads this post will ‘Smile’ in a strange way..

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  13. Iffat Gul Shirazi,

    Thanks! Well said!

    Like

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