Here I am, intending to break
your mirror in my disgust.
By letting you understand
my need to understand you.
I am squeezing and inching
my way closer to your smoky eyes.
As I am trying to pass through
but you won’t absorb. Me.
There’s a part of you
I can’t unlock. You won’t
let me fill. I am a stranger.
You shield something away
like the night clouds. That even
the slight sincerity of words
were moondust refracted
into the air. I keep on clearing
the cobwebs of frosted thoughts
and sand-blasted shadows
of doubt between us.
Let me stripped you down
stark naked. Fleshing you
out of your reptilian skin.
Your chameleon cloak you keep
on wearing everyday I don’t need.
What needs to be visible- be seen,
transparent and undividing.
I want your honesty.
We see only the reflection of ourselves in the mirror according to the self-image embed in our minds. And it is sad that to most people, this self-image is not exactly who they really are but just shallow definitions or maybe just a single cut of the multi-faceted individuals that we all are. What’s worst than that is when we believe them and become the person that we see in the mirror.
Remember my article and painting, “le-coeur-attend?”
This is the same thing I tried to unravel.
It is my wish that may all the mirrors would soon show everybody the real reflections we all search hidden somewhere beneath our opaque, smoky eyes: the window to our hearts.
I wish you well.
~ Jeques
i hate mirrors because they reproduce endless copies of ourselves.
jeques,
it’s been a long time since you last dropped by. i welcome you with my bear hug.
you have filled the missing clues for this poem. yes, it is about the mirror, we are facing each day of our waking lives. introspective and confrontational. there is a man behind the mirror that begs to be seen. and it’s just sad, really sad that, even us, we are concealing them away and pretending the other. we mask them with an image that we try to fit, tailor made to what the society dictates and expects us to be.
thanks for looping the ragged edges of this poem to a definite whole. as always, you bring gladness to my page.
best of times,
marvin
john,
this must be quite extreme- hating the mirror for the reason that it replicates copies of ourselves. what difference does it make like when we snap photos of ouselves, too? i bet, that you hate narcissism, even.
cheers
marvin, heheh. great insight to the comment here. i was laughing while reading it. made lots of sense.
john,
i am smiling when i read your comment. it’s nice that we can laugh sometimes. getting loose.
but honestly, i am thinking about the mirror and the camera? i am thinking that the image we see in the mirror is fake and the image we see on a camera is real. correct me if i’m wrong.
I like philosophical poems, and this is a very nice one. But is has also an optical/physical side that you – subconsciously – explore, that I find most intriguing.
You describe the mirror as if it were a polarizing lense, only passing through a small part of the light at a specific angle. Your polarizing mirror reflects only a tiny part of the personality in front of it, and leaves out everything else. And that which has been left out contains the essence and all meaning.
Sadly that’s what happens in society too.
Great poem!
Greetings and many thanks for your kind comments.
Eelco
dear eelco,
i was not able to contain the splendid way that you peeled off the essence of this poem. expertly dissecting each thought with the craftsmanship, only a gifted writer can extract. your comment is equally engaging and thought-provoking.
nothing escapes your microscopic lenses, eelco. as if you are screening each word and conjuring the links in finding the definitive soul and semantics left out from this poem. thank you for this absolutely enriching and inspring criticism of my poem. i would be more than delighted to have you as my guest to my blogpage.
have a nice weekend,
marvin
wow, the association os some words is great. a well delivered strong poem; well done.
missar,
thanks for the wonderful compliment. how is teaching? hope you are doing great.
cheers
This is one worth reading several times. I like the absurdity of it, the sincerity, the inconclusive yearning.
pablo,
i hope to keep digging deeper within me and honestly flesh out more intense words for this poem. but i choose instead the simplest, the vulnerable and the ambiguous word there is.
thank you for letting the words from this poem, squeeze its way through your soul. hope that it is always sincere and honest.
best of times.
I didn’t read this like you were looking at your mirror image in your own mirror. Maybe I’m a little daft. I took it as you were looking into the eyes of someone you had a relationship with and they were mirroring back to you yourself. You didn’t want that. You wanted them to speak honestly from the soul. I think, when one writes a poem, it begins to have a life of its’ own and the reader fills in the blanks from their life. The universal poems are treasures. This, I think, is one.
leslie,
no, you are not daft. you are also right to conclude that maybe it is about relationship, when the other also seek the honesty out of it. this can be another facet of this poem, the other twist and angle, depending largely on how the reader connects it with their own life experiences. i agree with you totally.
yes, some poems have the life of their own. it happens to me a lot. and oh, thank you for the precious compliment and appreciation towards this humble poem of mine.
all the best.
Hello, Hames,
I’ve read through your poems down to the coffee poems we’ve discussed a few times! 🙂 You are getting a lot of really great comments on your blog, too, I see.
I don’t think I need to add too much, really. I enjoyed reading them. You know how to construct poems, and have plenty of good ideas – “sand-blasted shadows of doubt,” for example.
That’s so good, and you have many, many more beautifully descriptive phrases in your poetry.
So, what can I say except, keep writing and writing. Like you said in a comment – It’s how you communicate. I understand that!
I would like to see a real image, and not just the gravatar image. But for now I guess it’s the “gravatar poet known as Hames.”
Getting postmodern! lol!
hi rob,
you blew me away! your comments is pretty long this time. i always have known that haiku writers are somewhat few in words, but meaningful. a compliment coming from you is absolutely a heart-warming accolade i could get. thank you very much. you are one of the best haiku writers i have read so far in the blogosphere.
yeah, i will keep on writing. and i hope to explore frequently on the japanese style haiku writing. sometime, i’ll post them here.
about the gravatar, i tried to upload the real picture, but all is in vain. so i stop and just be contented with the gravatar. anyway, it is the poems that matter much, not exactly the poet. lol.
cheers,
marvin-hames
Mirrors force us to “look”. And it’s not what’s outside that’s most fearsome.
This particular poem is a reflection in mirrors. It allows something to seep out of what’s inside the author. And depending on the angle, what’s seen may reveal a lot.
I love this poem Marvin. It’s desperate but short. And relevant.
bro rj,
i like to call you my bro- short for brother. if you will allow me.
yes, mirrors forces us to look beyond the obvious. and as what my friend jeques is saying, it is about the image that has been embedded there, and pre-conditioned.
thanks for appreciating this poem. this is relevant. for we can attribute the philosophy laid in here to how society is, in reality.
always,
marvin
Sure brother, I’d like that. But as I’m not comfortable using the word bro, allow me to use the longer term with you. Haha.
When I first read the poem, it struck me as a personal poem more than a social commentary. But it’s as exciting to see it from that perspective. Thanks again brother!
brother rj,
it sounds nice. it can be, eitherway. i leave it all for the reader to decide, how they perceive this poem to be. thanks again for keeping up with my blogposts. it is well appreciated.
marvin
Seems honesty is what most cannot give in today’s time. I myself am sick of the masks everyone wears, including myself of course.
You write so well, and with so much passion. It is really a delight to read your work!
hi deadpoet,
i hope that you could resurrect my favorite poets from the dead, really. your language evokes that period and era when poetry is considered the prime of all arts.
honesty is a jeweled possession for some, that is hard to be given to another, fragile and precious. that is why, most of us, wears a mask, to conceal the hidden vulnerabilities within.
thanks for the wonderful compliment. i dont think that i am that passionate as pablo neruda. i still lack the lushness of his imagery. happy reading to you and hope you come to grace my blogpage, as often as possible.
best of times
marvin
Hello,
Sadly we’re like turtles, hard on the outside, soft on the inside. You are right, we need those masks to keep ourselves from getting hurt, or maybe even from going insane! Yet, often we come across people whose mask we want to lift…
I have always admired the Elizabethian era, poetry from that time sounds to beautiful. I don’t often write like that, but lately I’ve taken more of a liking, more so because a fellow blogger helped me out a bit with improving it. He writes wonderful poetry as well, check out his blog: http://leoutlandosdamour.wordpress.com/
I will definitely keep coming back to read your stuff. Keep writing!
-deadpoet
hi deadpoet,
it is good to see you writing back to my comments here. sharing the same experiences that we have, and in common understanding about the masks we keep on wearing each day. and its true, you come across with some people who are willing to lift that mask for you.
i will check this out later about your recommendation to read this Elizabethan poet friend of yours. honestly i am still amazed on how capable you resurrect this language of the past. a great feat indeed.
all the best and thank you.
mmm… I like these words…
hi isabelle,
its my pleasure to have you here in my pages. i am equally enamored by your paintings. so original and evocative.
thanks.