“Are You Shaming Me?” [poem]
From what I have observed of shame, it has a taste.
Metallic, subtle, sulphurously hiding underneath
one’s gritted teeth, it cloaks itself in sugar-coated
candyflossedish vain houdiniesque derangerous
escapological decay. For people run from shame as if
it was a guillotine or other similarly end-it-all device.
But shame exists to be a springboard for a plunge
into a deeper clearer sea where darkness (for that’s
the state preceding the conditions which prevailed
before the shame) can yield politely to virginity.
If I am (man or woman) fat through my own folly,
or through shameless greed (whereby to feed myself
became a way of stuffing up my face and puffing up
my empty soul which only food could render whole),
then I should rightly be ashamed to see my inner self
so fallen & abusive of my gift of life and talents, health
(& by the way, I couldn’t give a flying fuck for wealth!).
For if I undertake no care for me and fail to take
responsibility to shine as an example of a shaft of light,
then how will others take me seriously when I campaign
for what is right and true? For it was only through the
salve-like insight of my shame that my astuteness grew.
If I am less than love in all my dealings on this globe
(yes, it’s a sphere!), and care not for the souls of others
even more than for myself, then I am fairly stranded
on a mountain distant from the valleys of my verdancy
and rightly should be filled with shame — not merely
1ce (if I persist) & that’s the end, but many times again,
until I condescend and bow to Wisdom’s honing regimen.
If I am woman (who should pure and noble be) and,
finding I partake in vomit-driven binges,
unholy drunken sprees,
no self-respect or dignity,
my skirt no longer than my knickerline,
my tits on show for all to see,
and tattooed on my chest:
“I’m proud to be a slut!”
(with something worse
engraved upon my butt),
and think that way of life is best,
then I have lost my lovely way
and rightly should be filled with shame
and need to rediscover all the
hidden riches of my femininity again.
For shame’s the road to self-recovery,
(as I have learned throughout this life)
provided that we’re brave enough
to take it wholly into heart, instead of
viewing it as something hostile tearing
us apart and causing strife as we resist
the gift of being beautifully kissed by
self-improvement’s generousful wife.
However, SHAME should never be the room
in which we permanently dwell, nor should
we wallow in some victimhood as “shamed”.
For shame should only be a temporary door
through which we enter briefly, humbled,
to discover more, escaping from the darkness
which we entertained unwittingly before.
“Hey, you judger, are you shaming me?”
indignant voices cry to me self-righteously.
“Most certainly I am!” is my recalcitrant reply,
“and hope you’ll do the same for me”.
For, often, shame’s the only way
out of the labyrinth of lunacy
and subsequently to be free
from our rebellious stupidity.
© Alan Morrison, 2018
The Naked Troubadour 
Jun 18, 2018 at 5:08 am
Exactly. This question is the new offensive tactic for the immodest and a put-down for those who dare to have an opinion about anything. Political correctness on steroids at the personal level. The Honor/Shame model for getting good behavior in any society has been totally trashed by feminism.
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Jun 18, 2018 at 10:19 am
Thank you, Debra. Agreed. Here is what I commented last night on the poem after I put it on Facebook: “I’m amazed that as many as 4 brave folks popped their heads over the parapet to get alongside this poem. We are witnessing the complete disintegration of society in which less and less people are ashamed of dishonourable behaviour. Instead, shame is seen as a crime against nature and an unwelcome challenge to the rampant Narcissism and political correctness. This is even the view of many so-called spiritual people, whose “spirituality” is from the dark side and solely used for virtue-signalling themselves on social media. A lack of honest shame has taken the place of the centrality of honour, which is the foundation of any thriving society. Revelling in behaviour which is dishonourable (yet not even *seen* as dishonourable) is fast becoming the norm. The time of the Great Apostasy — in which darkness is called light and light called darkness — is surely well underway. Prophecy is unfolding before our eyes: “But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power”. Exactly!
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