Notice of absence from Tristan Robert Lange
Friends, I’m doing my best to keep up with comments. 😅 I’m still current on my own poems and first replies on others’ work, but this season has been a bit of a twister. Figured I’d drop a quick note so you don’t think I’ve vanished or gone flaky.
Read. Write. Rise. Realize. 🤘💀🖤
Friends, I’m doing my best to keep up with comments. 😅 I’m still current on my own poems and first replies on others’ work, but this season has been a bit of a twister. Figured I’d drop a quick note so you don’t think I’ve vanished or gone flaky.
Read. Write. Rise. Realize. 🤘💀🖤
i was baptized—
down in the water
past the river’s edge,
baptized—
as an infant,
baptized—
just to be banished.
POET’S NOTE:
Part of the ongoing series: The Rutted Road.
© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
First published on tristanrobertlange.com, March 16, 2026.
Tittu
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Author:
Tristan Robert Lange (
Offline) - Published: March 16th, 2026 08:03
- Comment from author about the poem: Comment from author about the poem: I’m now published in an anthology featuring authors from across the Poconos, PA. All proceeds benefit the Pocono Liars Club — a collective of authors and editors dedicated to supporting and mentoring local writers. Available in paperback and Kindle, please consider purchasing one and supporting a great cause. https://a.co/d/58uxM69
- Category: Spiritual
- Views: 14
- Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett, Teddy.15
- In collections: The Rutted Road.
Offline)
Comments5
Tristan this carries so much unsaid meaning. We are all baptized by birth in the breaking water of the placenta. Yet such baptism or any other does not guarantee acceptance. The new born almost universally accepted is soon banished by culture, skin color, religion of birth, language, and then their own personality, actions and friends they choose. Do not expect God to save you from this a God that would banish his own son, that would order extermination of his own children of creation by armies of the chosen and drown them with a flood. No my friend we are on our own. Well written and a fave
Soren, thank you for such a thoughtful reflection, my friend. Your idea of the breaking waters at birth as a kind of first baptism hits a very true note, and one that baptism itself ritualizes. The way you connect that to how people become banished through culture, identity, and circumstance adds a powerful layer to the conversation. I’m grateful for the depth you brought to the poem, my dear friend, as well as the fave. 💧🌿🙏🖤
You are most welcome Tristan
Short, stark, and it lands like a stone dropped in cold water.
You can feel the hurt in it—faith given early, belonging taken away just as fast.
Thomas, I appreciate this reflection, my friend. That sense of something given early and belonging slipping away later is a tension many people quietly carry. I’m glad the piece spoke to that experience for you. Thank you for reading it so thoughtfully. 💧🌿🙏🖤
Oh no! Let's not consult P & Co about baptism. I don't mean the church/spiritual/religious type of baptism. We'll get soaked by them! How? Erm, WCAT! lol.
Orchi, thank you for this, my friend…I always appreciate you taking the time to jump in. Now…what in the world did I just tune into…W-CAT, the Glorious Gluggers Morning Show? Popeye’s there (boast glugging, of course), Ol’ Tom chiming in about how hard it is to glug while swimming the butterfly stroke…and then Obi Wan calmly steps in: “You must not fight the glug…you must become the current.” And right on cue, Scooby appears—“Ruh-roh…rorce be with roo…got any rooby snacks? Hehehehehee”—and disappears into some mystery van. Me…my head’s spinning and the endorphins buzzing. This made my day. 💧🌿🙏🖤
The power of contradiction is truly palpable here. Superb my dear Tristan! 🌹
Dearest Teddy, thank you so much, my friend…I really appreciate this. That tension you’re naming…that contradiction…that’s exactly the space this piece lives in. I’m glad it came through so clearly. Grateful for you, always. 💧🌿🙏🖤
To me now a meaningless ritual. I preemptively resigned.
A neat write though Tristan.
Dave, thank you…I really appreciate both the honesty and the read. I hear you on ritual losing meaning…it has for many, clearly. Often just a day for a ten-minute ritual packaged in a much longer service, and a private party with plenty of photo ops. 🤷♂️
Still, for many of us, it wasn’t something we chose in the first place. Baptized as infants, taught love and belonging, then rejected when we actually live into who we are and up to the message…that contradiction, of course, sits right at the heart of this piece. Whether preemptive or after the fact, I can understand your sentiment, for sure, and why it is a growing one. Thank you again, my friend. I’m grateful you engaged it. 💧🌿🙏🖤
Thanks Tristan for another agreeably warm response. 'Trouble is I get rather discombobulated when subjected to so much praise..... oh well. I suppose I'll just have to be strong and do the best I can.......
Dave, haha I hear you…too much praise might throw the whole system off. Good news is, PA hasn’t fully decided it’s Spring yet…so I’m not as warm as I could be. 🤣
All jokes aside, I really do appreciate you, my friend.
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