The Self-Obscured Truth

             There are few who live that truly experience life. The poem, ABC by Robert Pinksky, discusses this philosophy and its impeding relationship on one's happiness. Pinksky uses his strong sense of language and creative structure to depict the loss of purpose through a habitual lifestyle. The following will discuss the poem abroad and its moralistic implications.
             The poem begins with the proverbial statement that death is capable by anyone. While depicting simple logic, this line is not meant to be interpreted literally as its converse is what is implied. Death is merely a complement of life and for those capable of death, they must additionally be capable of life. However, as the poem depicts within the succeeding lines, there are few among us who indeed live. Pinksky defines true life by experiences of "joy, knowledge, [and] love- and as he suggests, the majority of people simply do not have the capacity for such. To correspond with this ideology, the poem is structured by the alphabetical ordering of each succeeding word. The strict pattern within the poem is symbolic to the nature of society. People adjust themselves to the patterns in their lives and become so reliant on these routines that any deviation will result in devastation. This concept is presented within the bold statement that "many need oblivion, painkillers."" As it suggests, people seek the instance of forgetting and ways to conceal the pain vis -via medicinal drugs. The poem implies that the pain is a direct result of an event disrupting one's formulated lifestyle. When one's routine is challenged, they naturally seek a means of returning to what they define as normal to relief themselves of this change. However, this is not possible as all solutions are only temporary. Pinksky exemplifies this thought by stating that "sweet time [goes] unafflicted."" Reflective to the first line of the poem, this statement is simple logic as time without grief can presumed to be sweet.