Sonnet 11 – The Paradox of the Selfish
The selfish soul can sometimes selfless be,
If selflessness attains his selfish goal,
And feeds the center of his galaxy,
The sun that rises there that is the whole.
A paradox, the selfish is in this –
Fools the unsuspecting casual friend,
Who thinks the two can co-exist in bliss,
That selflessness is the abiding trend.
But, like a plate filled by the finicky
Whose purpose is to earn a piece of pie,
The loved takes up the whole, with two or three
Peas for the prize, since selfishness is sly.
The selfish may partake of bitter pill
And practice selflessness to gain his will.
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© Dennis Lange and thebardonthehill.wordpress.com, 2012.
The Bard on the Hill 
You did a good job of pointing out something that a lot of people miss. Selfish people are really good at pretending to care.
It’s in their best interests. 🙂
A beautifully crafted Sonnet Dennis (my favourite form)… Very impressed Sir ..
Thanks. I’ve been in a serious sonnet mood this month and have written several.
So let’s see them!!!
When I first read your reply, it was only the reply and I couldn’t figure out what you mean, since I didn’t have the context. Later, when it popped into my mind you were talking about the sonnets I’d written this month, I didn’t have time at first to answer and then couldn’t remember where your comment was. I try to post a variety of my poems, rarely posting two sonnets or two villanelles (for example) in a row. I did make an exception when two villanelles were related (one to young women and one to young men) and I posted those back to back. I’m “saving” some of my poems and not posting them here to have enough for a book. Although, I don’t know if they’re good enough or if modern publishers will even be interested in traditional poetry if they were good enough. So, some of the sonnets are being held back for that purpose. I’m away from home right now and I don’t think I have a single poem by another poet to publish as my tomorrow’s post. So, I may publish one of mine. If I have one of my sonnets on my laptop, I might publish it. 🙂
***I looked, and did find other poet’s poems here, after all. And, I didn’t find one of my sonnets on the laptop. But I will try to post another one of my sonnets by Sunday or Monday.
Perhaps there are no such as friends…
Certainly true in one sense. I would say that they seem to be friends, but reveal their selfishness when you do something that gets in their way.
Very smart and well written. Good one.