The curtain falls and once more
today I am not me
though these words are mine, as before
just in a different way, a new degree.
These roles you play
he wants to know,
will in the end be thrown away
when you leave this human puppet show.
And I start to wonder
as my feet guide me swiftly off this stage,
whether these masks I am so used to hide under
are still no more than masks these days.
For my lines I know by heart
in every scene and situation
and my daily role seems yet another part,
a new invention, a life-like imitation.
This smile you see is seldom fake
these hands are still my own
these movements are the ones I always make
no person could be better known.
They are not the same though
I must say,
this person that you think you know
and these roles I often play.
And where the line is drawn
you ask me,
between what you are and what you let on
yet it's where it always was and will be
for there's only one I choose to build upon.
5 comments:
No idea how I missed this one. I can be very flaky at times. My apologies.
I know there are some who will tell you that I abhor rhymes. It's not true but I do think they are an artificial boundary that seems somehow anti poetry. :)
I'd love to see you try this one again with zero rhymes and instead find an image that will carry your message. Of course you've heard, "all the world's a stage..." and "to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet...". I kept alternately thinking of those two.
I do like the idea of your title. It seems to me a fresh approach to this world as stage notion. Seems to me you could run with the title a bit more. Of course, that's just me liking to see the image be the thing and not the play. ;)
Thanks for posting this!
Thanks for your comment!
Good idea on trying it without rhyme, I'll give that a shot!
We had to write a lot of stuff for school over the years, and I just knew what people liked: always rhyme. If the ending rhymed than you'd get good reactions. So I just used it most of the time. I do think it can give a nice flow to things, but it's not really necessary and often poems are more beautiful without.
I hadn't heard this one yet: "to prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet..." Pretty nice expression..
Thanks for your comment! :)
Ah. The quote is from one of my top favorite poets, T.S. Eliot. The poem is here:
http://hungrywriterslibrary.blogspot.com/2007/01/love-song-of-j-alfred-prufrock.html
I hope the link works. Enjoy!
PB, its so refreshing to hear someone quoting Eliot instead of trashing him...that's my all-timr fav poem, and it most definately came to mind when reading this one. i agree with PB--i think this work is strong but would be worlds better without the rhyme. it would be less restricting and allow you to play more. i liked stanza 5 especially, though. i thought it had a nice rythm and i liked the message. if you do want to keep the rhyme, i would recommend that you look at Letitia Elizabeth Landon's work "Lines of Life". she does the same type of thing in that work that you're doing here, and it might help you to take a look at her.
one thing that did bother me, though--in the second stanza, you have a second speaker ("He wants to know") with a question...but then you never have the question he asks. or at least you leave off the question mark. if this was my work, i would either have the question stated with the direct quotation, or else leave off the quotation marks and just paraphrase the man...that way you're not obligated to state the question, or, for that matter, to answer it.
does that make any sense at all? hopefully, but if not say so and i will try to clarify! thanks! :-D
I liked that Eliot piece a lot. And I'll definitely look up Landon's work.
You're absolutely right about the quotations. Actually, in my original text document, there aren't any.
I might make a second version of this one.
Thanks for all the suggestion!
I really appreciate it!
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