Source
r/OCPoetry•
thenewcandide

Not All Men

The white cherry tree
Stands tall in the spring
It’s white foliage evident for all to see
The tree wonders,
what autumn will bring

Come autumn, and a plot is revealed
Some leaves are hell bent on sin
To atone for their sins
All leaves must bleed

You see all leaves are connected
By sinewy indistinguishable branches and boughs
And although the innocent leaves are dejected
They still promise to be better, making solemn vows

So once the trunk that flowed with sap so white
Now pumps a color so vivid: tangerine
And the cherry tree waits patiently for the night
When only the vagabonds
Will pay for the crime

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Posted Aug 4, 2020, 10:22 AM UTC

2215
ArabianHorse18•

I'm surprised this poem has went unnoticed, the metaphor is powerful and describes an issue that is very relevant today. "Not all men" is a statement that doesn't absolve the "good men" from holding the others' behaviour in account, and the natural imagery used her evokes that nicely.

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thenewcandideOP•

Thank you
And yes exactly!

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verumpacem•

Powerful imagery, really love this.

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Seraph_GrymmPandora's Scribe•

I agree, but I'd love to see what you specifically liked. What jumped out at you?

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verumpacem•

I think this work shows the misogyny in popular cultures quite implicitly. Lots of vivid images pop up on my mind when I read this, like protests or activist groups. I did not understand when people say writings like poetry could be intense, but I agree with them now after reading this poem. It also helps that the writer used nature to express what he/she really wanted to say, which adds a nice appeal to it.

This is great from start to finish :) that's all I wanted to say

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Seraph_GrymmPandora's Scribe•

Thanks so much for diving in and sharing !

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verumpacem•

No problem, I'll pay more attention to the feedback rules from now on ^.^

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ButterflyAttack•

Poetry, like a lot of art, lends itself pretty well to activism. Seems to me you're implying a question - does the tree need to be cared for better? Or pruned? Or cut down?

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thenewcandideOP•

None of that really! There are leaves that feel like they don’t deserve any of this, but the truth is they’re all connected to the trunk where the sap gets distributed evenly. They are indirectly predisposed to biases because of the interconnected systems.
And then there are leaves that just need hope that as long as they stay true to the right values and promote them around themselves, everything will be okay

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ButterflyAttack•

I guess maybe you're an optimist and I'm a pessimist! That's the thing with throwing a poem out into the wild - everyone who reads it can't help but view it through the prism of their own preconceptions. It's so hard to get past that. I saw it as a political comment - which probably says as much about me as about your work - but I like it. We're all leaves on the same tree, I guess.

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thenewcandideOP•

that’s the beauty of all arts after all

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BoxedElderGnome•

No offense, but how are all men connected? By their reproductive organs?

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thenewcandideOP•

hahaha definitely not though that would be one way of thinking about it. i meant it in the way that all men are brought up in the same system with the same biases in us that are indirectly at times misogynistic. And thats not our fault. That’s just the system we’re all in. And till we identify and understand that we will continue to live in a patriarchal world

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[deleted]•

Cute poem but I disagree with the message you're making.

I've always found that the notion of collective guilt is inherently based on flawed logic and that it works against change instead of for it.

The notion that we're all one race of humans, and that we're all accountable for each other is nice, and I practice it to the extent that I can. Collective guilt, however, separates humans into types (whites, men, germans, americans, etc) instead of addressing problems at their source: human pathology.

Specifically with respect to sexism, it is not a problem that is to be untangled by men alone, and must, out of necessity, be a labour undertaken by men and women in harmony. Collective guilt advocates would instead lay the blame on men alone and suggest that it is up to men to change.

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thenewcandideOP•

I feel like we’re on the same side. In any case you’ve the right spirit! The fall of patriarchy should definitely not be ushered in with the rise of matriarchy. That being said, I don’t see how women can be held guilty for misogyny, and how they can help except by maybe bringing awareness and talking about their rights. It’s the masculine mentality that has to mainly change

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