We Live By Our Myths



Folk and fairytales.
“Innocent” nursery rhymes.
Biblical tales.
Literature — in general.
All have hidden messages.

All convey some truths.
Displayed, revealed — embellished.
Artfully portrayed.
Fancifully kept alive.
In ancient myths and legends.

These are documents.
And they must all be treasured.
Must be kept alive.
As historical records.
To be preserved with much care.

Poets write of them.
They are a special genre.
Of information.
Philosophers mention them.
They are who — and what we are.

We are all dreamers.
We are all storytellers.
Our lives are mythic.
Some truths known — and some hidden.
Some forever falsified.

We live by our myths.
Ours are “truthful” — others “false.”
We classify things.
We are all classifiers.
Living a life of Tall Tales.

About this poem

Mankind calls itself “Homo Sapiens.” Mankind is a mythical creature ever inventing and re-inventing “reality” in order to make sense of that which remains beyond mankind’s earthly senses. His mythical invention of himself becomes mankind’s own autobiography. We live by our myths.

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Written on May 04, 2022

Submitted by karlcfolkes on May 04, 2022

Modified on April 08, 2023

47 sec read
603

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXAXX XXXBX XXBXX CXDCX EEXDX XXXAA
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 785
Words 158
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Karl Constantine FOLKES

Retired educator of Jamaican ancestry with a lifelong interest in composing poetry dealing particularly with the metaphysics of self-reflection; completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature in 1991 at New York University entitled: An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s “Dear Mili” Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes of Analytical Psychology. The subject of the dissertation concerned the process of Individuation. more…

All Karl Constantine FOLKES poems | Karl Constantine FOLKES Books

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3 Comments
  • teril
    We are myth makers and meaning makers, as individuals and as a human culture. So interesting to consider truth while we watch the manifestations of our creations.
    LikeReply1 year ago
  • ggsunmoon
    nice, i wrote a similar poem. Magical thinking, the fantastical american mind

    “The charm of anticipated success”, everything accepted with a “bated breathe”,

    The revival meeting is a fluffy huffy guff, oh boy that snake oil is really good stuff

    Wandering and wondering among the bounty, he will build my own empire, have his own county,

    Dreaming the fantasy that tickles his fancy, the dream will come true, it is not even chancy

    Everyman is a castle, or he believes that it is so, he’ll make good on his aspiration or keep it in tow

    As tocqueville and others pointed out long ago, america and magical thinking are apropos
     
    LikeReply1 year ago
  • kali_p
    One of my favorites so far
    LikeReply1 year ago

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"We Live By Our Myths" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/125991/we-live-by-our-myths>.

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