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Poetry

Sartre Poem

by Alasdair Macdonald

You condemned me to be free, Jean-Paul.
You were what you did,
the author of yourself,
transcending every moment
with each choice, and
what you chose for yourself
you chose for all humankind
– for me! –
to be able to choose to do differently
from what you might have wanted
me to do,
even if I am inauthentic,
and choose,
in bad faith,
to delude myself
that I have no choice,
because I cannot face the anguish
of choosing.
There are no excuses.
No! None!
I cannot say, “It was not I.”
I did, I am.

Alasdair Macdonald is a retired secondary school Head Teacher. His first degree was in Natural Philosophy and Mathematics. He subsequently did a Masters in Education. After he retired he attended classes in Philosophy at the Adult Education Department of the University of Glasgow.