Sometimes one can create their most potent and impactful poetry in the confessional genre, when the shields are down.

Sometimes it's also not easy to see and appreciate it at the time.

There is also a difference between true and earnest use of casual racism and sexism, and using it as a tool for constructing deliberately trasngressive and/or didactic pieces. The problem with the latter, as I have often found out to my sorrow, is that some people are incapable of seeing the difference, just as some people are incapable of seeing nuance.

I think being deliberately transgressive, as I often was, cannot be an excuse for insensitivity, but your point about the power and impact of the confessional genre is well taken.

I would argue that even sensitivity, or lack thereof, has its own scale of nuance.

It all gets down to matters of tact and taste. Sensitivity applied with neither tact nor taste produces nothing more than a wishy-washy slop that, in the end does more harm than good. On the other hand, sometimes insensitivity needs to be correctly and judiciously applied like a scalpel lancing a boil, or perhaps cutting out a tumour.

The more time that one spends walking on eggshells, lest they ever offend anyone, the more artistic integrity and vision you sacrifice for that indulgence, IMO.

I used to have exactly that attitude, so can certainly relate. I guess at some point I decided not hurting people, even unintentionally, was more important to me than expressing myself.

You clearly still haven't lost that bite, even if it's applied to passive-aggressive, rather than overt. :P

Sorry. I am certainly not trying to be bitey. I am not saying you or anyone else has to make the same decisions I did, only that this is what I felt I had to do (or, stop doing) at this time, for myself.

Thanks for that clarification. And I do agree that in the end, personal choice is just that.
I never begrudge anyone their personal choice, especially in those cases, where that choice only affects themselves.

I always enjoy your work, and this piece is no exception. Here's to hoping your poetic muse gets its second wind. ^^

I appreciate you saying that, but am overall glad to not be writing anymore; it feels like a burden was lifted, most of the time.