Betrayal -- A S J Tessimond

Guest poem sent in by Roberta Sutton

(Poem #1155) Betrayal If a man says half himself in the light, adroit Way a tune shakes into equilibrium, Or approximates to a note that never comes: Says half himself in the way two pe! ncil-lines Flow to each other and softly separate, In the resolute way plane lifts and leaps from plane: Who knows what intimacies our eyes may shout, What evident secrets daily foreheads flaunt, What panes of glass conceal our beating hearts? -- A S J Tessimond

I wish that the title, “Betrayal”, came at the end of this poem, if at all.
The word is quickly associated with fury and shame (something about feeling
mistaken and foolish for sharing so much with another instead of being
recognized and enlightened). The poem is too beautiful to be disposed so
quickly as a melancholy work or a void. In fact, the betrayal spoken of here
is not perjury as much as it is a deeper betrayal. These lines are examples
of sad incompletes, denials of the truth, the quest for absolute and the
effort to express them as a person in love or a person to themselves. Love
is the best opportunity to try these life lessons. This is the best poem
I've seen on a difficult topic; this voice is sweet while remembering the
beauty of love and its potential rather than the bitter remedy of loss,
vengefulness. It does not mourn what was missing or lost; it celebrates what
can be. Not an Anti-Valentines’ Day poem, after all (though, happily, this
is a poem about the stride for authenticity for the single and the coupled).

Roberta