Mare, or: Reflection

I wade in; I float near
Not myself- who's that there?
Can't be me; won't free me
Else, I'd drift out to see
            No windows- no wind blows
            Stale thoughts heave in death throes
            This place's strange faces
            Fill the spaces tightly

Swift pacing, mind racing
Dreams fleeted yet chasing
Depleted, now seated,
Truth meted to me
            In pieces, heart ceases
            As time's s~l~o~w~flow~increases
            Mirroring their familiar
            Conciliar decree

Stern strangers, deranged- Or?
Portending no danger to
An ending upending their
Unbending decree
            As my eyes recognize them
            And my selfs humanize them
            I realize now 
            that the stranger
            in my mirror
            is me

48 thoughts on “Mare, or: Reflection”

1. Beautiful words !!!

   1. Thanks so much

2. the words are so well spun together with the thoughts. I have a blog scheduled similar to this one..
   Keep up your amazing Ben

   1. Looking forward to reading it 🙂

      1. Hahah be posted. Have a great day😊

         1. wait – it already has been? can you share a link please?

            1. HAha in a couple of weeks it will be out. I will definitely send you the link

3. I love the journey this poem took me on. 👏🏼

   1. Me too, actually 🙂

      Thanks, Michele.

4. Recoiling from myself. My favourite line is “Truth meted to me….in pieces”.

   1. recoiling from yourself? that doesn’t sound good!

      1. 🙂 which is why you didn’t use it in your poem. I meant that often when I was out in public and one of my children would vocalize or start moving strangely I would see this look of fear in people’s faces who couldn’t handle strange or different. But I would feel pity for them because I knew that it meant that they couldn’t handle brokenness or strangeness in themselves either – that they would recoil from themselves in the same way. Does that make sense? Your poem made me think of this but I am the furthest thing from a poet.

         1. Wow; actually… the imagery surrounding the stranger in the mirror does speak to that idea. It’s so interesting that it evoked that for you too.

            1. 🙂 one of the great things about good poetry – people see in it what they need through the lense of their personal experience

            2. of course – but your perspective actually helped me see new layers in my poem

            3. 🙂 I had to look up mare. My vocabulary is expanding. 😉

            4. In English, it’s a female horse. In other languages it means “sea”. Check it out: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mare

            5. Your poetry is too deep for me, lol. La mer – the sea. I would have had to see it like that to catch the meaning cause we learn French as a second language here in Canada. I’m drowning in this scrabble game. I’m a simple girl.

5. An ending upending their Unbending decree…

   Wow! Those words make music🙌

   1. Thx ❤

6. I got tingles as I slowly took in the first half of the third and final stanza. The formatting on this from title to finish is just so ponderingly beautiful… master-crafted poetry. 💛

   1. Awwwwww

7. So- the stranger is also a talented poet as well as a keen connoisseur of poetic works!

   1. Thanks so much 🙂

      1. Oh, and your spelling and grammar appears in be in order too. 🙂

         1. Actually, my Mom found a typo in my last prose piece. I had repeated a word!

            1. Ahh- so I can feel a bit more artistically normal in my sloppiness. Thanks ! lol

            2. ❤

8. Wow! What a poem!! By the way, David, is it somewhat related to ghetto?

   1. Well, I generally believe that poems are intended to be interpreted but the reader, just as all pieces of art are…

      But, no, this one didn’t have a Jewish theme or conceptual anchor. (at least not in my mind… but – it certainly might have one in yours!)

      🙂

      1. Sorry, sorry, I was wrong. However, I appreciate the lines. Thanks for quick clarification 😊

         1. Actually, something that you recently wrote about strangers seeming familiar and one’s own face seeming unfamiliar inspired this poem.

            1. I feel elated. Thanks a lot for your kind words 🙏

            2. Do you remember which post that was? I am having difficulty finding it. It was a recent poem, I think.

            3. Yes, two days back with the title अजनबी/Stranger.

            4. I added a link to it at the bottom of my poem.

            5. So kind of you. Thanks 😌

            6. Thanks for the inspiration!

9. These are beautiful words Ben… 😊

   1. thanks so much 😊

10. Yes, I get that feeling sometimes., you write for us who cannot express these emotions.
    the whole poem spoke to me. I connected with these lines. Good stuff , Ben.

    1. 💞

11. Hello stranger😊💐.. Nicely done.

    1. 🙏

12. The stranger in the mirror… beautiful poem, ben.

    1. Thank you❣️