Self Echoes

I

I have walked through markets of faces,

Where smiles are masks and words deceive;

Many hunger for the simple graces,

To be liked, a craving they weave.

II

What is this liking, void of truth,

That shuns the mirror’s candid light?

A tragedy of flattery’s youth,

Robbing souls of honest sight.

III

I have not joined the silent chorus,

Nor bowed to idols carved from clay;

I seek communion in the forest,

Where hearts speak more than lips can say.

IV

Hatred sprouts from seeds of silence,

Perceived indifference feeds the fire;

In the cold realm of wire and science,

We lose touch with warm desire.

V

I extend my hand in kindness,

Making others feel at home;

Speak the truth with gentle blindness,

Mend the cracks within the loam.

VI

No labor spent on false pretending,

No shapes assumed to please the crowd;

I am the self that needs no bending,

A solitary, unbowed.

VII

Often wronged by eyes unseeing,

By those who shun the inward glance;

They cast their stones without foreseeing

How mirrors break in ignorance.

VIII

It is my nature to be giving,

To love all souls beneath the sun;

Learned long ago that joy in living

Outshines the battles never won.

IX

Let minor woes dissolve in laughter,

Let love’s embrace heal every scar;

Let us build a new hereafter,

Where each of us knows who we are.