Sometimes I know what I don’t know

This poem comes from a week of struggling with Make Cycle #2: Re(MEDIA)te With Me. I have struggled with this topic not so much due to understanding what was asked, but in trying to understand its why. I am not clear why we are asked this. Yes, I know the creative exploration that fits with the spirit of #clmooc itself, but the issue, for me, is how can this work add value? Not value for others, but rather what is in it for me (WIIFM?). Why be creative for its own sake?

Thanks, @Moshie, for encouraging me to grapple with this more!

Sometimes I know what I don’t know

Sometimes I know what I don’t know
and sometimes that is scary,
or intimidating, 
or humbling.
Or all of them together. 
What will they think of me if 
they know
I don’t?
Imposter.
Sham.
Attention Seeker.
Self-Promoter.
Grub.
 
Does it matter what they think,
when I am the one struggling?
Perhaps I am reading in about how 
I think others may feel or believe?
 
What does this all mean when we learn,
learn in ways that do not follow
a pattern, 
or objective, 
or clear path?
How does trying fit?
What does it mean to try?
When is trying not enough?
 
That unit done, we are on to the next topic.
Learning accomplished, 
or not. 
Onward and upward or stay stuck?
Sometimes we can remain stuck, whatever the effort, 
though how can we really know best?
Yes, onward and upward it is.

While this poem is not quite ready to be shared, I thought, in the spirit of #clmooc now may be a time if ever there is one!

By the way, this is being posted with a companion, or related, poem, I know stuff, but what do I know?

Would love some feedback . . . .

12 thoughts on “Sometimes I know what I don’t know”

  1. Interesting idea. I think I sometimes know what I don’t know. In these cases, it’s easier to begin to seek answers and ask questions that move me forward. I often wonder, however, what I don’t know that I don’t know.

    Cathy

    1. Yes, Cathy, that may be for the next work!

      I have met many people who think they know more than they do, and are clueless in not knowing with gusto!

  2. Thanks for your bravery in opening up your self-revision process. I agree with +Karon Bielenda, it is a lovely piece of work as it stands, and it already has the reMEDIAting aspect of having a companion poem floating there in our consciousness as we read this one.
    That next level of visual or stylized refraction through formatting or presentation might involve something about spirals, as I see the curving back, circling around, images as not circular but elliptical, and skewed, so one gets to see the before and after as above and below….like writing out the poem on a paper spiral chain, and photographing it in motion…
    Or taking the two poems, face to face like the pages of an open book, and flapping them slowly closed towards each other, and then letting them drop back open…
    Again, thanks for sharing.

    1. Thanks @fmindlin for your kind words and suggestions. Interesting, as you were writing this I saw lots of parentheses in my mind regarding my work. Let me toy with this a bit . . .

  3. There’s an Arabic saying part of which says that knowing what we don’t know means we are open to learning… Vs not knowing what we don’t know whixh makes us unaware of our ignorance

    1. Thanks, @Maha. There is a lot of wisdom in these old sayings. Alas, being open to learning, at least to some extant, is quite helpful if we consider forms of continuing professional development. That is what has led me this far. Next step is to consider some goals for it, as that has been my lack heretofore.

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