Self-Portrait with Loose Hair by Frida Kahlo
I do not own any rights
Self-Portait by Salvador Dali, 1954
I do not own any rights
Self-Portrait by Vincent Van Gogh,
I do not own any right
Our self-portrait
A boy, a cornered hamster
Stuck in life’s treadmill
Too young to have such heavy legs
Like machinery, and not marbles
But millstones stuffed in his pockets
Ones that kill, grind down his will
To catch snowflakes with his tongue
To join their giddy pirouettes
And that woman there who wears
Cement as her lipstick
An iron-armoured smile, all the time
As she talks, her words fly like gunshots
Pierce the air, guard her distance
All the unknown shores of her soul
But oh, she doesn’t know
How that man longs to kiss her rough sands
To hold her storms free in the palm of his hand
And caress them, oh she doesn’t know
How she is beautiful
And now, as I look at her and them all
Passing by, I see no alienated emotions
Nothing I could judge
I see life, only life, same life as my life
Life flowing, bursting, frowning
Rattling along these streets
Patterning the faces of you and me
Of every slug’s shell and shivering sea
It sings in the wind, in our laughs and cries
It speckles our eyes with its tear-drop dew
That runs down our cheeks like children do
Skip down the fields, mouth full of air
Reaching to touch every stalk of a hay
Every hair on their friend’s neck
They live in us, children and that air
Hay and roots and nightingales
Free of time, warbling in the green
Their being fills us and we are gilded
By the soft summer’s sun
By the simple beauty of this all
I have had many debates whether unselfish deeds exist, or whether this world is purely self-centered and uninterested in kindness. But how could they not? How could they not exist, even in the darkest places when in us lives the strength to not curse the dark but to light a candle instead?
How could they not exist when we all carry light inside us, the same light out of which this world was born? For light is needed to sustain life, and we are alive. So we are light.
Don’t look in the mirror and frown, go out and in the rising dawn you will find your self-portrait.
May we all aspire to add light to this world in the New Year! Thanks for sharing such wise and beautiful insight… Blessings to you in 2013!
Lots of love and blessings to you too this New Year! That is the ultimate purpose of existence I think, to share light and hold it inside your heart like a warm secret. I’m glad you enjoyed this post, take care! x
What an amazing poem. So many good things about it, so I’ll just say it made me happy to read
Wow thank you! I was a bit shy about publishing it but glad I did now since it gave you happiness! Never too much of that around : )
Could debate this all day…love the words
I’m humbled. Thank you!