The Disagreeable Existentialist
(in Roy’s words)

I

The things
We did agree
We no longer
Agree on

The things
We never agreed
We still do not
Agree on

Altogether
Unagreeable
Aren’t we?

Innocents
Loosed on
The world
Thoughtlessly

Twisting
Each others
Words to no
End

Existentialists
Tilting at
Windmills
It is all

So pointless.

II

I don’t see
my actions as
ultimately futile
futility follows

the assumption:
life has meaning
I don’t think it does
Therefore it cannot
be futile

I don’t see myself
Battling death
But wrestling
With life

about fighting
death I disagree
I eat drink, embrace
Life

Deferring death
Is simply one of
The unintended
Consequence

Living in fear
of death is not
living it is
dying

the existential
choice available
to me is to choose
to live

I utterly fail
To see the
Existentialism

Of it all.

7 Responses to “The Many Lives of an Existentialist (Part I)”

1. Ida Werrett Says:
   March 26th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

   I try so hard to understand existentialism as others see it but somehow my intuitive mind rejects the concept.
   Ida

2. clematis Says:
   March 27th, 2009 at 12:48 pm

   ha! ida you’re sweet! perhaps art is the only one to understand the concept intuitively & roy though averse to the concept was so eloquent - i have a dirty feeling at heart he might be one too!

   i think the concept is a classic case of - alienation from society - basically alienation - a modern malady. i think it was camus who wrote metarmorphasis - about a guy living alone who thinks he’s turned into a fly! therefore when roy wrote that mole thing it fitted so well with the concept of existentialism - he’s def. one of them!

   i dont think i’d even have heard about them if i didnt have a paper on the theatre of the absurd in college. & if it wasnt so fashionable in those days to read the existentialist! they were like a fashion statement - intellectual no doubt about that - i’m sure art can tell us all about it - i think he must be one of the few people to have read ‘being & nothingness’ - i do hope he can get around to reading my absurdities or rather roy’s!

   roy you’re supposed to read them - no excuses will do for you - & please do do get back to them!

3. Ida Werrett Says:
   March 27th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

   Well, I certainly have enjoyed your “absurdities” as you call them and if I am ever going to understand anything at all about
   existentialism it will be because of you and Art but I think it may just sail right over my head like an errant frisbie.
   Ida

4. clematis Says:
   April 13th, 2009 at 2:36 am

   ha! i do like this too!! there’s sweet irony here!

   ok now before i drown - i better quit!

5. Roy Conant Says:
   April 13th, 2009 at 2:52 am

   My post was lost — I’m inclined to think it was Kafka’s fly and not Camus’ but I could be wrong so I’ll just zip it!

6. yann rolland Says:
   May 8th, 2009 at 3:45 am

   Hello Clematis, I didn’t comment this one and I regret it, I read something very interesting and I like your differenciation between life and existencialism, between reality and theory, some very wise words indeed and pertinent thoughts, thinking of death is not living, you are right and more. disagreement is something inevitable that ponder our thoughts and make us think about others and their strenght or fragility….Yes indeed it is an awesome poem….

   have a nice day

   yann

7. clematis Says:
   May 8th, 2009 at 4:10 am

   hi yann - thank you so much for commenting on all the eixistential series. i’m afraid i can’t take credit for things i never said - you have to thank roy for all the ‘wise words’ - i’m anything but…wise!

   i’ve taken some of the prose comments that roy sent on this site & have converted it into verse - as i’ve mentioned under the title (in roy’s words) perhaps i should have explained better!

   so all the words are his - every word!

   i’ve just packaged it! the content is his!

   i’m not given to praising my own works - but perhaps these i can!

   maybe i can take credit for - ‘an awesome poem’ !

   so what if the words are his - the poem is mine!

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