Anger Management

elder wisdom from the school of life, written up as a poem

        Anger Management

             by Evyn Rubin                                                  

                                      

May your anger be transitory

not embedded to make you wrong headed

Don't build your hangar

with bricks of anger

because it will limit the ways 

in which your plane can fly

Anger is an intoxicant

that is, embedded habituated anger

is an intoxicant

Like a drunk on the dance floor

who thinks he is graceful and smooth

like a drunk on a bar stool

who thinks his conversation is clever or charming

The angry ideologue

thinks his anger confers

proof of veracity

when in fact it signifies

parametered capacity

The angry ideologue

thinks his or her anger

is passion and strength

when really his thinking 

is stuck in one gear

The writer who can only

bang out an angry rant

is surrounded by pitfalls

potential mistakes of reason

Don't build your house

with bricks of anger

Anger is to manage

Anger emerges in response to a wrong

but don't let anger become your only song

Anger is to manage

Anger needs chances to dissipate

so as not endlessly to accumulate

to dominate your palate of emotions

and surround you with pitfalls

Don't build your house

with bricks of anger

Anger requires management

Anger management is self-management

 

Author's Note

This is one of the poems I wrote for Joan Larkin's poetry workshop.

Reviews

[Robert Haigh]

I have suffered from outbursts of anger in the past, but I am learning to control and channel it... not always easy, especially when I hear the drivel and tripe that most politicians come out with! Still, I'm getting there! With age we mellow... if we are lucky!