The Real You

(on personality, the facade and contentment)

The first few lines of this poem came about in the midst of animated conversations between my wife and and my niece. I started in to make a contribution (what, I cannot remember!), my wife sort of interrupted and I quickly said (inadvisably, I thought for a moment) “don’t talk, just listen” or words to that effect, and, gracious as she is, I didn’t get black looks! What I said is neither remembered nor relevant to this, but the first lines that kept circulating around my head for the next 24 hours, nonetheless spawned this poem.

The lines were initially (something like): –

“Don’t talk, just listen
So I see your eyes glisten
With the echo of your soul
Then I’ll see the whole
Of You”

Good chat-up line for a young man on a first date, I thought? Maybe not on second thoughts! Better to let them talk, isn’t it?

What followed was what I call ‘an advisory’ poem – a bit preachy and slightly boring, I thought! I have however, placed it in the ‘Ego’ category, because this as really about the necessity of ego, the ‘Psychic apparatus’ as Sigmund Freud described it.

You should read it (mostly) with slight emphasis on the third syllable of each line, except of course the last line of each stanza. Note the repeated rhyming words in the first line of each verse: talk, balk, stalk, walk, fork.

(Read the Poem)