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Saturday, July 20, 2013

Who Looks Back From the Mirror?

 
 

Who Looks Back From the Mirror?

Who looks back from the mirror?  Some days, it is the Green Lantern or Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman or Batman.  A child dreams potentials, sees prospects and wears possibilities.

Who looks back from my mirror?  Some days, it is a weary grandmother but others, a wise woman learning to write poetry.  Perhaps it might be easier to own my dream if I wore a costume that said, “I am a poet.”

Everyone would see it and know.  “Oh!  This is who you are.”  For now, it is enough, for me to recognize that a poet is who I am, deep inside.

But, what would a poet’s costume or attire be?  Open heart, acute observation and attention to details, skilled use of imagery, metaphor, precise descriptions of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, touches, and tools, pencil and paper,  over it all a gifted resonance with the world, as a way to understand the world and others.  All very abstract; well, most of it.

Perhaps the real ensemble of the poet consists of jeans, birkenstocks, field guides, a heavy thesaurus, a heavier dictionary, paper, pencils, a faded pink shirt faintly fuzzed with cat fur and a curiosity so large it could be worn as a cape … a cape which invites the whole world into its folds.  Perhaps.

I’ll work on it.

3 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

We all hold so many identities, so many secret parts of ourselves that may or may not shw in the mirror let alone to other people

I like the idea of a poet's outfit, but then I like also to be an undercover poet, observing and creating without people noticing!

Rambling Woods said...

I enjoyed this post.... We are so many things .... Michelle

Carol Steel said...

I think we all wear masks and costumes at times. It is helpful to recognize this in ourselves and to own our disguises as well as our real selves.