A Note to Myself

It seems we are always chasing our gods and our saints while our demons are chasing us. Perhaps the answer is in viewing our deities in the same lens we view our demons. It is true when we walk in the light we cast a shadow, there is no way to live without experiencing the pain and pleasure of our angels and our demons. This is a poem about finding myself through a balance of opposites. We have all been here. 

A Note to Myself

I saw myself

through the reflection

of a life.

Beyond the pines

and over the stars ____

Through the color

of a stranger’s eyes

and in between the ropes

of a Tokyo tea house.

I felt myself between stanzas

in a struggling poem,

through a reflection

in a mirror that lies ____

I remembered myself

woven in words

my Mother wrote to me

when I was seventeen.

For six years

I forgot myself

and floated

in a perfumed bath

of poppies.

Now I remember who I am

through the portrait of my eye

torn but put back together

wounded but still here ____

I saw myself

through the reflection

of a life.

© Poem Gesso Cocteau

© Photo Art Juliette Bates