A Friend, Wittgenstein, Truth And Lie Poem by Dennis Ryan

May 5,2006

A friend started me reading Wittgenstein again—
she told me there are no absolute truths.
I understand what she means, yet facts do exist,
some absolute truths, about us and things,
though we might look at them from multiple perspectives.
We talk a lot about material things, the state of affairs,
love and the other emotions—these are the outposts of truth.
Truth and lie are what we have to say about these things,
and we need to look at ourselves to decide whether
the lies are ultimately worth it. And there are absolute lies.