The Poet and the Pendulum and the Poet
A palindrome of storytelling in song
3/16/20245 min read


"Niaga dna niaga
I wonk I lliw eid enola
Ees ot hguone gnol
Gnol hguone ot raeh eht sdnuos fo snug
Gnitnuoc dna setunim eerht evah ylno I won
Rof degnol syawla I htaed a em evig"
The end
The songwriter's dead
The blade fell upon him
Taking him to the white lands
Of empathica
Of innocence
Empathica
Innocence
The dreamer and the wine
Poet without a rhyme
A widowed writer torn apart by chains of Hell
One last perfect verse
Is still the same old song
Oh Christ, how I hate what I have become
Take me home
Get away, run away, fly away
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world
Forgive me; I have but two faces
One for the world, One for God
Save me
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world
My home was there and then, those meadows of heaven
Adventure-filled days
One with every smiling face
Please, no more words
Thoughts from a severed head
No more praise
Tell me once my heart goes right
Take me home
Get away, run away, fly away
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world
Forgive me; I have but two faces
One for the world, And one for God
Save me
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
a whore for the cold world,
a whore for the cold world
Sparkle my scenery
With Turquoise waterfall
With beauty underneath
The ever free
Tuck me in beneath the blue
Beneath the Pain
Beneath the rain
Goodnight kiss for a child in time
Swaying blade my lullaby
On the shore we sat and hoped
Under the same pale moon
Whose guiding light chose you
Chose you all
"I'm afraid, I'm so afraid
Being raped, again and again, and again
I know I will die alone
But loved
You live long enough to hear the sounds of guns
Long enough to find yourself screaming every night
Live long enough to see your friends betray you
For years I've been strapped unto this altar
Now I only have three minutes and counting
I just wish the tide would catch me first and give me
A death I always longed for."
2nd robber to the right of Christ
Cut in half - infanticide
The world will rejoice today
As the crows feast on the rotting poet
Everyone must bury their own
No pack to bury the heart of stone
Now he's home in hell, serves him well
Slain by the bell, tolling for his farewell
Next morning dawned upon his altar
Remains of the dark passion play
Performed by his friends without shame
Spitting on his grave as they came
Get away, run away, fly away
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world
Forgive me; I have but two faces
One for the world, And one for God
Save me
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
a whore for the cold world,
whore for the cold world
"Today, in the year of our Lord, 2005
Tuomas was called from the cares of the world
He stopped crying at the end of each beautiful day
The music he wrote had too long been without silence
He was found naked and dead
With a smile in his face, a pen and 1000 pages of erased text."
Save me
Be still, my son
You're home
Oh when did you become so cold?
The blade will keep on descending
All you need is to feel my love
Search for beauty, find your shore
Try to save them all, bleed no more
You have such oceans within
In the end, I will always love you
The Beginning
I will always love you,
In the end,
You have such oceans within,
Try to save them all, bleed no more,
Search for beauty, find your shore.
All you need is to feel my love,
The blade will keep on descending,
Oh when did you become so cold?
You're home,
Be still, my son.
"With a smile in his face, a pen and 1000 pages of erased text.
He was found naked and dead,
The music he wrote had too long been without silence,
He stopped crying at the end of each beautiful day,
Tuomas was called from the cares of the world,
Today, in the year of our Lord 2007"
A whore for the cold world,
a whore for the cold world,
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
Save me !
I have but two faces; One for the world and one for God
Forgive me
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more
Lead me astray to dreamer's hideaway
Get away, run away, fly away
Spitting on his grave as they came
Performed by his friends without shame
Remains of the dark passion play
Next morning dawned upon his altar
Slain by the bell, tolling for his farewell,
Now he's home in hell, serves him well,
No pack to bury the heart a worm,
Everyone must bury their own
As the crows feast on the rotting poet
The world will rejoice today
Cut in half - infanticide
Second robber to the right of Christ
"I just wish the tide would catch me first and give me a death I always longed for.
Now I only have 3 minutes and counting.
For eleven years I've been strapped unto this altar.
You live long enough to see your friends betray you,
long enough to find yourself screaming every night,
long enough to hear the sound of guns.
It would make you cum, wouldn't it?
desecrate the rest,
Dissect my heart and,
Would you like to rape my rotting carcass?"
Chose you all
Whose guiding light chose you
Under the same pale moon
On the shore we sat and hoped
Sparkle my scenery
Swaying blade my lullaby
Goodnight kiss for a child in time
Beneath the rain
Beneath the pain
Beneath the blue
Tuck me in
The Ever Free
With beauty underneath
With turquoise waterfall
Sparkle my scenery
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more,
I have but two faces; One for the world and one for God,
Forgive me.
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more,
Lead me astray, to dreamer's hideaway,
Get away, run away, fly away.
Take me home.
Tell me once my heart goes right
No more praise
Thoughts from a severed head
Please, no more words
One with every smiling face,
Adventure-filled days,
These meadows of heaven,
My home was there and then.
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more,
I have but two faces; One for the world and one for God,
Forgive me.
I cannot die, I, a whore for the cold world,
I cannot cry cause the shoulder cries more,
Lead me astray, to dreamer's hideaway,
Get away, run away, fly away.
Take me home !
Oh Christ how I hate what I have become,
Is still the same old song,
One last perfect verse.
A widowed writer torn apart by chains of hell,
Poet without a rhyme,
The dreamer and the wine.
Innocence,
Of Innocence Empathica,
Taking him to the white lands Of Empathica,
The blade fell upon him,
The songwriter's dead.
The End


Renée Kessen
Absolutely. Here's a deeply reflective and emotionally intelligent blog post based on your prompt, exploring the absence of anger through the lens of personal experience, emotional awareness, and shadow work:
Unmasking Anger: A Journey Through Emotion, Illness, and Identity
🌪️ The Silence of Anger
Anger is often described as a fire—hot, consuming, and impossible to ignore. It’s the emotion that screams when boundaries are crossed, when injustice strikes, when pain demands a voice. But what happens when that fire never ignites? What if, instead of rage, there’s only quiet? Not peace, not numbness—just an absence. A void where anger should be.
For most of my life, I’ve lived in that void.
I’ve watched others erupt in fury, express indignation, or simmer with resentment. I’ve studied their reactions like a foreign language, mimicked their expressions, and tried to decode the emotional choreography that seemed so natural to them. But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t feel it. Anger was a costume I wore, not a truth I lived.
And it took a brush with death—and the guidance of a goddess—to finally understand why.
🧠 Alexithymia and the Feelings Wheel
Before diving into the deeper layers of my story, it’s important to understand a concept that shaped my emotional landscape: Alexithymia. It’s a condition where identifying and describing emotions is difficult. For those who live with it, feelings are often vague, elusive, or entirely inaccessible. It’s not that we don’t feel—it’s that we don’t know what we feel.
The Feelings Wheel, developed by Dr. Gloria Willcox, became a lifeline. It’s a visual tool that breaks down core emotions into nuanced sub-feelings. For someone with Alexithymia, it’s like a Rosetta Stone for the soul. It helped me begin to name the foggy sensations that floated through my body. But even with this tool, one section remained blank: Anger.
I could identify sadness, fear, joy, and even surprise. But the entire slice of the wheel tied to anger—frustration, irritation, rage, resentment—was inaccessible. Not just hard to name. Absent.
🩸 A Diagnosis That Changed Everything
Then came the diagnosis. A possible form of leukemia. The kind that doesn’t offer years—it offers months. The kind that forces you to confront mortality not in theory, but in countdowns.
People talk about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. For me, it was more like two stages: a brief flicker of disbelief, and then a swift, almost serene acceptance. No rage. No “why me?” No bargaining with fate.
It wasn’t bravery. It wasn’t spiritual enlightenment. It was just… how I am.
And that’s when Hekate entered the picture.
🔮 Hekate and the Shadow
Hekate, the Greek goddess of crossroads, magic, and the unseen, has long been a figure of transformation. In my spiritual practice, she became a guide—not in the mythological sense, but in the deeply personal one. She pointed to the truth I had long buried: I had never felt anger. Not once. Not truly.
She didn’t say it with judgment. She said it with clarity. Like holding up a mirror to a face I’d never seen.
Through shadow work, a process of exploring the unconscious parts of ourselves, I began to peel back the layers. I examined moments in my life where I was supposed to feel anger—betrayals, injustices, violations. And what I found wasn’t anger. It was grief, fear, confusion, and sometimes even compassion. But never rage.
🎭 The Mask of Social Conditioning
Society teaches us that anger is natural. That it’s healthy. That it’s necessary. Especially in moments of pain or injustice. And so, I learned to perform it.
I learned to raise my voice when wronged. To clench my fists. To say “I’m so mad right now,” even when I wasn’t. I wore anger like a mask, stitched together from expectations and mimicry.
But beneath that mask was something else. Often, it was hurt masquerading as fury. Or fear dressed up as indignation. Sometimes it was shame, sometimes helplessness. But never anger itself.
Shadow work helped me see that these emotions had been forced into the mold of anger because that’s what I was taught to do. I wasn’t expressing anger—I was expressing other emotions in the socially acceptable costume of rage.
🧩 The Puzzle of Emotional Identity
This realization was both liberating and disorienting. If I don’t feel anger, what does that say about me? Am I broken? Am I incomplete?
The answer, I’ve come to believe, is no.
Emotional identity is not one-size-fits-all. Just as some people feel joy more intensely, or are more prone to anxiety, some of us simply don’t experience certain emotions the way others do. And that’s okay.
What matters is authenticity. Feeling what is, not what should be.
🛠️ Reconstructing the Emotional Framework
With this new understanding, I began to reconstruct my emotional framework. I stopped trying to force anger into my vocabulary. Instead, I asked myself: What am I actually feeling?
When someone hurt me, was it anger—or was it sadness?
When I felt violated, was it rage—or was it fear?
When I lashed out, was it fury—or was it a desperate need to be seen?
This process was slow, and sometimes painful. But it was also profoundly healing. I began to respond to situations with emotional honesty, not performance. I stopped apologizing for not being angry. I stopped pretending.
🧘 The Role of Acceptance
Acceptance became a cornerstone—not just of my illness, but of my emotional truth. I accepted that my emotional palette is different. That I navigate the world without the fire of anger, but with the depth of other feelings.
And in that acceptance, I found peace.
I no longer feel the need to justify my reactions. I no longer feel broken for not raging against the dying of the light. I feel whole in my own way.
🌌 The Spiritual Dimension
There’s a spiritual dimension to all of this. In many traditions, anger is seen as a lower vibration—necessary, but not ideal. In others, it’s a sacred force of protection and boundary-setting. For me, its absence has opened a different kind of spiritual path.
One that values stillness, clarity, and compassion. One that sees emotion not as a checklist, but as a spectrum. One that honors the unique wiring of each soul.
Hekate’s guidance wasn’t about fixing me. It was about revealing me. And in that revelation, I found a kind of magic that doesn’t need fire to burn.
💬 Final Reflections
If you’ve ever felt like your emotions don’t match the script society hands you, you’re not alone. If you’ve ever wondered why you don’t feel what others feel, you’re not broken. You’re just different.
The Feelings Wheel can be a powerful tool—but only if we use it to uncover our truth, not to conform to someone else’s.
Anger may be absent from my emotional vocabulary, but in its place are other truths. Other voices. Other colors.
And they are enough.
Would you like help formatting this into a publishable blog layout or turning it into a podcast script?
That’s a profound question—and one that touches on identity, emotional authenticity, and even survival. If someone never feels anger, it can be confusing, especially in a world that often treats anger as a necessary response to injustice, boundaries being crossed, or pain. But the absence of anger doesn’t mean emotional emptiness. It often means something else is happening beneath the surface.
Here’s how someone might begin to navigate and make peace with never feeling anger:
🧭 1. Understand What Anger Represents
Anger is often a signal—it tells us something feels wrong, unfair, or threatening. If you don’t feel anger, ask:
What does arise in those moments?
Is it sadness? Fear? Disappointment? Confusion?
Sometimes, these emotions are misinterpreted or masked due to social conditioning. You might have been taught that anger is the “appropriate” response, even when your body and psyche are wired differently.
🧠 2. Explore Neurodiversity and Emotional Wiring
Some people—especially those with Alexithymia, Autism Spectrum traits, or trauma adaptations—experience emotions differently. It’s not a flaw. It’s a variation.
You might process emotional stimuli through logic or detachment.
You might feel things somatically (in the body) rather than emotionally.
You might have learned to suppress anger so deeply that it never developed as a felt experience.
Understanding your unique emotional blueprint can be liberating.
🧘 3. Practice Shadow Work and Emotional Inquiry
Shadow work helps uncover unconscious beliefs and patterns. If anger is absent, ask:
Was I punished for expressing anger as a child?
Was I taught that anger is dangerous, shameful, or unspiritual?
Do I fear losing control if I allow myself to feel it?
Sometimes, anger is buried under layers of conditioning. Other times, it’s simply not part of your emotional vocabulary—and that’s okay.
🎭 4. Stop Performing Anger
If you’ve been mimicking anger to fit in or meet expectations, give yourself permission to stop. Emotional authenticity matters more than conformity.
Instead of saying “I’m angry,” try:
“I feel overwhelmed.”
“I feel hurt.”
“I feel unsafe.”
These are often the real emotions hiding behind the mask of anger.
🛡️ 5. Redefine Boundaries Without Anger
Anger is often used to set boundaries—but it’s not the only way.
You can assert yourself with:
Calm clarity: “That doesn’t work for me.”
Firm detachment: “I’m stepping away from this.”
Compassionate honesty: “I need space to process.”
You don’t need rage to protect yourself. You need self-awareness and self-respect.
🔮 6. Embrace Your Emotional Truth
Not feeling anger doesn’t make you broken. It makes you you. Your emotional truth might be quieter, more introspective, or more complex.
Some people are wired for empathy, grief, or reflection rather than confrontation. That’s not a deficit—it’s a gift.
🧩 7. Use Tools Like the Feelings Wheel
The Feelings Wheel can help you identify what is present. If anger is missing, look at adjacent emotions:
Fear: Are you scared rather than angry?
Sadness: Are you grieving something?
Disgust: Are you repulsed or morally offended?
Naming the emotion accurately can help you respond more effectively.
🌌 8. Spiritual and Philosophical Integration
Some spiritual paths view anger as a lower vibration. Others see it as sacred fire. If you don’t feel it, explore what your path says about emotional expression.
You might find that your emotional absence aligns with a deeper spiritual calling—toward peace, detachment, or transcendence.
💬 Final Thought
You don’t need to feel anger to be whole. You don’t need to rage to be valid. You don’t need to conform to emotional norms to be real.
You just need to feel what’s true for you—and honor it.
If you’d like, I can help you build a personalized emotional map or even write a journal prompt series to explore this further. Would that be helpful?
