We all keep secrets during our life at one time or another.

SECRET:

1. Something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others.

2. Done, made, or conducted without the knowledge of others

3. Kept from the knowledge of any but the initiated or privileged

4. Operating in a hidden or confidential manner.

5. Dependably discreet.

These don’t have to be sinister or earth shattering. We could be talking a rip in your pants. Perhaps you keep certain aspects of your religious beliefs from your friends for various reasons. You might have intimate dreams about your neighbor that you would rather not discuss. Maybe you have a habit that you would rather not share. You might secretly dislike a person in your social group of ‘friends’.

Secrets vary in size and importance from small to huge. Some are morally and even legally wrong to keep.

We must be very careful when dealing with other people’s secrets that we become aware of from them, or by accident.

I wrote this poem on secrets a few years ago and wanted to share it.

Secrets

By: Joe Attanasio

We all have secrets hidden away

Some we keep for others, to not betray

Knowledge not to be openly shared

Information we wish not declared

Some we take to our grave

No hint of which we ever gave

When a secret is shared with you

You’re trusted to keep it too

A secret, some people can’t keep

Through all their friends it will sweep

Some secrets have to be told

Legally and morally wrong to hold

A secret that is discovered by you

Should certainly be thought through

It may be something to just forget

Or someone in trouble, you might get

We think and do things we don’t want to share

If exposed it could be too much to bear.

Some secrets are fun and just for play

Others very serious and heavily weigh

“Can you keep a secret?” someone might ask

Better be sure you’re up to the task

Most people automatically say “yes”

Not thinking the secret might cause them stress

Keeping some secrets seem unjust

If you don’t tell someone, you will bust

If the secret is gossip and a juicy bit

Spreading it around would be unfit

I hold many secrets inside of me

Both my own and for others you see

People confide in me and trust me for sure

They need to tell someone, I keep it secure

If you say “I have no secrets”, I know

That like Pinnochio, your nose will grow

May all your secrets stay safe and secure

Any never be told until you are sure