Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Neutrality / Objectivity

"Close examination of unbiased truth"
Painting by William Girometti (Italy, 1979)
Photo Silvia Girometti (via Wikimedia)

“Surely, we want to be objective if that means telling the truth as we see it, not concealing information that may be embarrassing to our point of view. But we don’t want to be objective if it means pretending that ideas don’t play a part in the social struggles of our time, that we don’t take sides in those struggles.   Indeed, it is impossible to be neutral."

― Howard Zinn, Declarations of Independence

All encyclopedic content on Wikipedia must
be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV)

The opposite pole to narcissism is objectivity; it is the faculty to see other people and things as they are, objectively, and to be able to separate this objective picture from a picture which is formed by one's desires and fears.” 
― Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Yellow Emoticon Neutral Face Button
by Granny Enchanted

"The very concept of objective truth 

is fading out of the world. 

Lies will pass into history." 

--George Orwell

World map showing countries' degrees of neutrality prior to 2007:

  neutral countries

  disputed neutral countries

  historical neutral countries

Midweek Motif 
Neutrality / Objectivity

Neutrality and Objectivity are not equivalent, but they share the qualities of being relatively good or bad, possible or impossible and revealing or obscuring truth.  A neutral position is good in a yoga class, but bad in a debate.  Do you agree?

I picked this topic because today is a Celebration of Neutrality in Austria, one of several countries which have adopted a UN Declaration of Neutrality.  But as a member of the European Union, how neutral can and should it be?  

Your Challenge:  Create a new poem that explores one instance of neutrality or objectivity.  Try NOT to be either neutral or objective.

Excerpt from Goodbye to Tolerance

Related Poem Content Details

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

Genial poets, pink-faced   

earnest wits— 

you have given the world   

some choice morsels, 

gobbets of language presented 

as one presents T-bone steak 

and Cherries Jubilee.   

Goodbye, goodbye, 

                            I don’t care 

if I never taste your fine food again,   

neutral fellows, seers of every side.   

Tolerance, what crimes 

are committed in your name. 

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE.)

Neutral Tones 

BY THOMAS HARDY

We stood by a pond that winter day,

And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod;
     - They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles of years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro
     On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
     Like an ominous bird-a-wing...

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God curst sun, and a tree,
     And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ The Day of the Dead.)