Am I Wrong

Am I Wrong
How can I be wrong?
People say. Then demand,
Tell me.
What they mean is
I’m about to tell you I’m not.

That’s why
It’s a question to ask of yourself.
Always
How can I be wrong?
Create the scenario
In your head of it like fact.
That doesn’t mean it’s true
It does mean we often are.

Call it alternate facts if you wish
Though I hope you don’t.
and do it without calling yourself dumb.
But maybe pretend you are

I wrote this poem as a freewrite as I taught journaling to young people. I am also the inaugural poet laureate of Oshkosh. My task was to bring people together through poetry. Not my style but it did cause some connections between these two endeavors.

So why did I write this poem? Because:

Our brain is intent on finding blame. Most people have a critical inner voice that criticizes. This function wants to keep us safe  by saying you failed.  Don’t try again, because you will fail..

It also assigns terrible motives to other people. Because the less risks we take, the safer we will be. If we see badness in other people we will take less risks. So we assign terrible motivations to other people to explain what is happening.

And it is automatic. Our brain does not want to hesitate, so it develops these scripts to how we deal with life and other people. We don’t even realize we are following these scripts. That is why I believe the first question we should ask is. How can I be mistaken about what is going on?  

Writing delves into the unconscious brain where we have scripts on how we react to certain situations, and brings them out so we can change them.  Poetry is a great way to ask questions.

If we can stop (or reduce) having automatic negative thoughts about ourselves and others, we become open to see the good in others. We will be happier and thus get along better.