Journey to Ixtlan

It is a blessing beyond monetary measure to have a person who willingly takes on the knowledge of your life's burdens. It is likely that they've experienced similar, and face the same struggles, when revelation is accepted without judgement. The poem "Sweet Mirror" is about one such friend in my life.


Sweet Mirror

Oh sweet mirror welcome here
have your come to see my tears
framed upon a face of grief
turned for you to fully see?
this kind attention gives me pause
makes me wonder what I've done
to deserve the angel's time
in pits so dark to numb my mind

I'm not so rare is your reply
spoke by one by life maligned
unfairly bent by fate's misstep
some cosmic joke gone rudely bad
from my mouth comes truths revealed
kept too long in my reserve
where they've found troubled soil
wet with tears too long enjoyed

the flowers there are wracked with thorns
the bitter fruit the only dish
served in private meals until
you joined my table to see my crop
in this bounty I take no pride
indeed it seeks to end my life
in response I've lost my way
against the whole of life's dismay

yet when I pull the curtain back
to show you all that I've become
the same is thrust from deep inside
that inner world that you survive
you grace me with a gift so rare
revelation of inner dreads
fair exchange, like for like
not deserved, thank you much

I look upon my angel friend
with tinge of dragon now embraced
you've heard my tale with knowing nod
for on this path you've also walked
dark enough to know your way
yet not so much to stay this place
this I pray to many gods
I praise your visit and thank the day.

2016, Sean Green. All Rights Reserved, 20160929.

A beautiful soul shared a victory that spoke of a condition that many people share. This prompted me to write a very introspective poem. Naming a thing is the beginning to resolving the same. Thank you to my friends for being the light in my life even when I don’t want it. Warning… the poem does have trigger statements for those who struggle with self-worth.


Hide From the Light
Poem for Day 79 – 20141211

Mirror mirror
avert your gaze
show me not the
person I think I am.
Camera camera
turn away your eye
don't capture me
in this moment of being.

If I saw in me
a tenth of what you saw
it would be more
than a hundred times
what I see now.
If I believed in myself
a tenth of what you believe
it would be a thousand times
what I believe now.

I look at old photos
and see a cool person,
one that did not exist then.
I look at my friends
and see them appreciate somebody
who does not exist now.

Humanity is my illness,
the cure worse than the disease.
The world is grieved by
my continued being.
The ground screams
at my continued steps.
Self worth is the wound I hide.
Guilt is the brand I wear.

Cover the mirror,
hide the photo for another day.
Listen to others with a deaf ear,
lest they lift you up.
Hold your own council,
hanging judge will preside.
Walk lightly on the earth,
hide from the light.

© 2014. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved