Chasing The Shade

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Frank, Relevant, and Relatable Rhymes,
Depicting The Condition of Our Condition
In the Raw, and Artless Tenor of The Times.

I believe enlightenment is best achieved when we are willing to engage and explore alternative points of view, that opinions and convictions are best formed empirically, and that we should be bold enough to tender our perspectives without apology. They merely reflect what we believe to be true at a given point in time, and are subject to change as we evolve. That’s how it works if we continue to grow.

My poetry is profoundly personal, as are all forms of art, and asks only to be received with a receptive mind.

I have no illusions about the impact of my work or my significance. Nor do I apologize for its tenor, nor agonize over how others judge it, or me for it. To do otherwise would inhibit free expression, and a reticent, self-conscious poet is doomed to an uncreative and unproductive melancholy.

On the one hand, I write vulnerable, tender, and loving poetry, born of passion, empathy, and sentimentality. And on the other, I am compelled to write damning and pontifical prose and poetry, born of disgust, anger, angst, and sorrow.

But in the final analysis, poeting Ridge has this daft and naive belief that if he can effect just an iota of awareness in the innocent, impart an ounce of enlightenment in the ignorant, or foster a scintilla of clarity of conscience in the culpable, then his passion, sentimentality, empathy, disgust, anger, angst, and sorrow would have mattered.