• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Prose of a Con

Poetry and Prose by Russell Wardlow

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
    • Culture
    • Inside
    • Love
    • Mercy
    • Spirit
    • Trauma
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Wary of WayOfLife Look-alikes

March 5, 2022 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

Frantz Fanon posed a question, am I all I say I am, am I all I ought to be
which is cycled through black conscious communities and their spiritual circles upon their path for enlightenment re-identification and liberation, as a creed of sorts that asks those two vital questions and demands indiscriminate honesty in order to locate oneself and reorient if their way has been lost or veered from

if what is believed in, is because what can’t be believed in…then it’s no real belief, and just as powerless as the potential, and latent state of believing, which is, “belief”

if what is created is because what can’t be created, it is no creation, it is just craftiness

if what is done is because what can’t be done, then it is not transcendence, no matter how it appears and what is said
the reason and the energy are not separate and therefore if they differ or split, then the initial cause is disrupted and only filled in with the illusion of that which was sought
the mind will make room for and allow this perpetual deceit with its house full of rationalizations

transcendence is not just a function which goes beyond, it is an essence, a constant unfolding…
as well as an energy, knowing, and belief which propels the transcendence
otherwise transcendence is just a title, to which titles and labels I have no interest for nor in…

I do not desire the names of things more than the experience of them, the experience will reveal their names

as WayOfLife, I am my own and need not capitulate to that of other’s need for a converted means of identification and understanding that only dilutes what was once potent and pure yet still has the appearing luster of grand titles

WayOfLife is transcendence, it doesn’t need the appearance nor affirming title/label of which, it is the title and label
it embodies the name and answers the calling unflinchingly

I am what I do
but I am more than yet I have done
so I do not allow the moments that they define
to be the moments I define
in my transcendence, I redefine
because transcendence is as deep as roots
and what surfaces therein lies the proof

so I stay wary of wayoflife-look-alikes
perception is illusive
and truth, allusive

Filed Under: Spirit

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is a collection of Russell Wardlow’s prose and poetry written entirely behind bars. Through writings on family, spirituality, freedom, love, justice, redemption, and vulnerability, Russell seeks to show the humanity and hope of individuals like himself who are incarcerated.

Read More

  • Whose Mind is it Anyway June 30, 2022
  • Objects June 30, 2022
  • Same Thang, Different Name June 30, 2022
  • Optical Ill-lusions June 30, 2022
  • Hollow Symbols June 30, 2022

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma
  • Uncategorized

Footer

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is sponsored by giveabeat.org

  • Instagram

Navigation

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma
  • Uncategorized

Prose of a Con © 2025 · web design by Studio Lyko