The problem with having a rule that you have to be positive<\/p>\n
Is that forced positivity<\/p>\n
Can lead you – to use the pejorative –<\/p>\n
To feeling a bit shitty<\/p>\n
When your fake full-beam smile is dull in comparison<\/p>\n
To ‘insprational-quote’ Maddison.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Because deep down I knew that being authentic<\/p>\n
Was the best way to feel really splendid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It was an admirable thing to ban self-doubt<\/p>\n
But actually as effective as banning a drought –<\/p>\n
The more I was instructed not to be real<\/p>\n
The more negatives I started to feel.<\/p>\n
It was like the Stepford Wives except on crack –<\/p>\n
The Mindfulness Militia on fast-track,<\/p>\n
Self-affirmations sung by a gospel choir<\/p>\n
Any skeptics cast on the fire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And deep down I knew that being authentic<\/p>\n
Was the best way to feel really splendid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After an unwelcome, unexpected reprieve<\/p>\n
I found that it really was much simpler to breathe<\/p>\n
Without a noose round my neck ready to tighten<\/p>\n
If I cried, frowned, questioned or ever got frightened<\/p>\n
So I’m practicing my own positivity –<\/p>\n
Without a brand or an army – it’s really just me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And deep down I knew that being authentic<\/p>\n
Was the best way to feel really splendid.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The problem with having a rule that you have to be positive Is that forced positivity Can lead you – to use the pejorative – To feeling a bit shitty When your fake full-beam smile is dull in comparison To ‘insprational-quote’ Maddison. Because deep…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2114],"tags":[3442,3534,2867,3557],"class_list":["post-63562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-official-marathon-announcement","tag-2020poetrymarathon","tag-bop","tag-prompt3","tag-thirdhour"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/252"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64085,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63562\/revisions\/64085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}