Through the Looking Glass

  • Post category:poetry

I look out into the world, and what do I see?

I always look outside of me,

beyond myself, into the sea of life, 

and when I look and I see strife, 

I step away. I say OK, 

these problems are not mine. 

If you’re not fine, 
with me, don’t you see, 

it’s really just you?

But what I do not realize 

is that the world I see with my own eyes, 

is not just what someone else has done or said, 

it’s not about the words coming out of their head, 

it’s about the words going into mine. 

Somehow I miss the divine 

when I look at you. I see frustration 

because it is my interpretation 

and my own beliefs 

that disallows my own relief.

The world is the looking glass reflecting 

back at me and I am now protecting

an illusion and a trick in which I think I see

something moving outside of me.

You would think I see you, 

but it would not be true. 

Who I really see, is actually me. 

How can this be?

A mirror will reflect 

back to the seer, and I detect 

not a reflection of my soul, no, 

but it is my own mind and ego.

Yet the reflection is reversed, 

and so I have cursed 
the mirror itself, 

and refused to acknowledge myself 

because I am unable to see 

I am really staring at the backwards me.

All this began when I looked away

from my own soul each day

and chose to look for reasons outside of me

to find the answers I did not see.

I blame the world all around

instead of standing my own ground 

and listening to my heart

from the very start.