Guilt
Is a rare bird of shame
Its plumage
Breathtaking
For guilt
Captures the beholder, willing or not
Averting gaze from all else
Guilt will render paradise dowdy
Comparing freedom with the chains of its capture
Guilt is an old, fond bruise
Reminder of moments left torn to shreds
It will piece them carefully back
Twice as convincing, twice the weight
Strung round your neck like noose of sea pearls
Begging to be drowned
Guilt is a rose bush with bleeding thorns
A shudder as you catch yourself thinking of
Those pursed secrets you’ll never disclose, even to yourself
Snapshots you expunge, that still, listlessly, rise from the depths
Never speak of it, even to the merry faced doctors 
Plunging their needles as far as they’ll go
Guilt
Makes you sick
Wan faced, old before your time 
Aloof in the varnished secret
Guilt
Steals your liberty 
But like a lie
Guilt is not vanquished, even by truth
There are things better never admitted
Keep them so deep inside you start believing the deception
Until
Like a wide eyed bride
Guilt takes your hand 
And plunges you back where you’ve been all along
There’s no solution to shame when it’s too late to undo
The poison that you drink, the person you’ve turned into
Guarding yourself like a wreck against sharp rocks
With less and less by the day to salvage
If you spoke it out loud
Surely the very sky would catch fire
How many of us must carry a spark?
Burning in our secret hearts?
And maybe this is why
You never know another person by what they share
Instead
It is the unsaid
Electric in the air
We recognize in others
The tarnish of shame
As clear as promises once given
Cannot be refunded

31 Replies to “Guilt”

  1. These lines you’ve punched in the gut:
    Guilt is an old, fond bruise
    Reminder of moments left torn to shreds
    It will piece them carefully back
    Twice as convincing, twice the weight
    Strung round your neck like noose of sea pearls
    Begging to be drowned
    Life reminders of how guilt follows he/or she in times of what hurt they’ve caused
    and the pain they’ve left. It’s a sad truth and you’ve expressed this poem so bold and well written and powerful driven poem.

  2. Life: the everyday test that we take until we die. So many old things become new, so many new things become old. People–hard work that we are not often prepared to deal with, but for the sake of being human, must. This is now a favorite of mine from you.

  3. Wow! Have I ever read another poem about specific amd poetic about guilt as this! The thoughts and the way they were constructed are just amazing! Great poem!

  4. your articulation of a very twisty biscuit is brilliant. i have a challenge for you, as i think you are up to the challenge. will you write about an individual who has learned to rule others by knowledge of their guilty secrets, but one who also creates guilt-inducing scenarios and then rules new guilties as well?

  5. Guilt is a pointless emotion. It changes nothing. It only torments and poisons the heart. What’s done is done and once done there is no going back. Only going forward perhaps with the resolve to never make the same mistake again. But to tie the rock of quilt around one’s neck is a pointless pursuit and those who insist on our feeling of guilt commit a far worse sin for the Lord has grant us forgiveness of all sins and shortcomings should we but ask. 🙂 <3

  6. You’ve so brilliantly and accurately described guilt and what it does to us. No doubt we can all relate. It’s a hard subject to write about, talk about. But it’s also a human subject. You’ve put it into words beautifully, Candice, and it becomes a gift to your readers – and I thank you. ❤️💕

  7. Dr Wayne Dyer had some powerful things to say about the futility of guilt. It ha a big impact on me when I read one of his self-help first books, Your Erroneous Zones.

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