C I R C U S
“No one lives his life.
Disguised since childhood,
Haphazardly assembled
From voices and fears and little pleasures,
We come of age as masks
Our true face never speaks.”
Rilke II,11
“How would anyone know if you’re
Sad or happy unless you are wearing a mask?”
Mirrormask
No one recognizes the shadow
In my bedroom mirror until
I put on my mask.
When I perform, the audience
In the big top forget
Their tiger-striped anger, elephant
Trunk despair, lion-tamer anxiety.
The tight rope tension in necks
Disappear, All the Damocles fear
Are sword-swallowed.Their joy cannon
Balls to trapeze heights.
I am a consummate performer,
Everybody loves me. Every night
My saw-dust dread is exchanged
For star-dust dreams. Every morning
I wake, vowing never again
To be a clown.
But then the Ringmaster cracks
His whip, shouts, “The show
Must go on!”
10 comments:
I could scream and weep at the same time
For a moment, or mabe even two one might silently-secretly sneak out of the tent for a breath of fresh air!
Have not seen you around either,
I can say you have been "absent" yourself...
For you dear friend and all of your loved ones:
MAY ALL YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE
MAY ALL YOUR DAYS BE FILLED WITH
PEACE, JOY, LOVE, ABUNDANCE AND LAUGHTER...
MAY YOU KEEP AND OPEN, GRATEFUL HEART...
Terra, aka AlgelDust
This poem fits my mood and current state of work life...
Cheers, Kian Seng. :)
this is life itself, isn't it? that's how i interpret those layers of words. :)
Its been awhile ...
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Hi Dr. Ng, how have you been? Hope all is well. I read this a while ago and it has been lodged in my head since. I love how you have pieces of other poems at the beginning, it adds a whole new layer, and it has introduced me to some great poetry I may not have read on my own. I wrote one a long time ago which popped into mind after reading this, here's the link:
http://www.dreamagic.com/cgi-bin/PoetryGen.cgi?author=Robert_Cameron_Hazelton&html=hazelton_1&title=Know_Thyself&number=0121
Take care my friend,
Bob
There is a story about a magic ring, on which the follwing words were inscribed: 'This, too, will pass.':)
Hi,
I'm aware that this blogged had been left some time ago but just thought that I should drop by and leave a message. So happy to see kluang people online. =)
The true face Can speak, no problem, nr rilke
i love y
I love this part :
“How would anyone know if you’re
Sad or happy unless you are wearing a mask?”
Mirrormask
I guess a lot of us wearing a mask to avoid some misunderstanding and to hide the sorrow beneath our heart. Hypocrite. Don't you think?
Yes, thats true...thanks for coming by, I have been very lazy of late and so the postings have been few and far in between...
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