False Skin, A Poem About Shedding Facade and Allowing Oneself to Simply Be
False Skin
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Façade, false skin, an illusion
An invisible blanket
No warmth, only delusion
Weighted upon your shoulders
Yoked about your throat, façade—
More millstone than sheltering cloak
So take hold
Go on now; reach deep within
Peel back the deceptive dermis
It only feels like skin
Grit your teeth at the pity
Sharpness dulled by soft truth
Oh-so-sweet vulnerability
Shed the brittle shell
Bare your soul, scars, and sinew
Be brave; the blood, the shame
Washed away with a tear …
Okay, maybe two
The photo courtesy of the creative commons. The photo was edited to achieve desired coloring. Attribution for the original can be found at the following link.
https://torange.biz/fx/100290
False Skin is copyright of Pryde Foltz and published in Strays and available at the following link.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pryde+foltz
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STOPgreat job, your writing style manifest your inner talent in poetry.
Thank you, Wagun. I really appreciate your comment and visit:)
you go a different way from me with your poetry - you like to think - I kind of think-feel, well, mostly feel, lol. My mentor once told me I was a drop of reason in an ocean of emotion...That's good, isn't it? Then, I noticed the philosophy tag...yeah, that makes sense :)
Thank you, John. Writing poetry is a meditative practice for me. I open my mind and let what comes, come. It generally comes in a combination of words and concepts ... almost always metaphors. My writing style will vary greatly but almost always ... if not always ... deals in metaphor. My latest post is more expressionistic and adopts a vastly different structure than this one. But still the metaphor vein is what holds it together. It's called I See/I Feel and explores deep, overwhelming feelings. Check it out if you have a moment:) Let me know what you think:)
Hiya Pryde
So much truth. The facade is a millstone, holding us all back, preventing us from being who we really are.
This was beautiful.
Thanks
Anj x
Pinning us to one place maybe as well. I have learnt the personality is a changing thing ... concepts of who we are or meant to be really are a limiting thing. Best to move through the sun without preconceptions weighing us down. Thank you for your kind words. Love your visits:)
Definitely. Lots of things pin us down: masks, beliefs, ego. I agree, just flow with what's happening, but keep a little cash in reserve, just in case ;P
Thanks. I love visiting :D
Always good advice:)
Sometimes I take on a second skin as a coping mechanism. I have to put on a facade otherwise I can be mean and we don't want that. It is to protect myself and others.
Awareness is key in such situations. I practice philosophical Taoism which has led me to conclude that we made from the energy that flows through us. It sounds like you knowingly choose a more 'compassionate' energy. With time, this will change who you are and that 'meanness' you speak of will diminish. Guard against the media you consume as well.
@prydefoltz,
Pryde ... Rhyme! For me??? :)
If you think it was for you ... it was for you:) Hope you like. I don't rhyme like this very often:) You gotta be careful with rhyme ... it's like salt:) Too much and the dish is ruined:)
@prydefoltz,
Hard to take that well ... as every one of my poems rhyme (and often contain internal rhyme in lines 1 & 3 to boot. I'd be wounded ... but then I think: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Byron, Elliot, Frost.
Of course ... you've got ... Whitman. :)
How do you make a weigh-scales with emojis? :)
LOL ... I wouldn't allow my opinion to sway your from hanging out with the likes Shakespeare:) Truly ... the caveat to rhyme is that it can limit and make a poem predictable. But rhyme in the hands of a master is most-satisfying.
@prydefoltz,
Perhaps you ought consider getting into politics. That's some very fine double-talk indeed!
Pryde, I thought you might enjoy this quote:
― G.K. Chesterton, Fancies Versus Fads
I've been chuckling on and off for about 3 minutes. :)
I told not a lie. I have little interest in politics ... kind of a killjoy, don't you think? I guess I am not interested in being a killjoy. I studied Theatre and of course I hold Shakespeare in high regard. I will edit my response a bit if you will allow ... rhyme is often quite effective in delivering humor. Byron did this quite effectively. We need not butt heads over this. It is just how I see things ... it is not poetry law. Which if I were indeed in politics, I would not suggest a one.
Pryde ... just teasing. I swear. Everybody gets to write what, and in whatever way, they want. As I mentioned earlier, rhyme wasn't even the historical dominant ornament of old English poetry ... or for that matter, Classical Greek or Classical Roman. It was meter and alliteration. What's good enough for Homer, is good enough for me. No disrespect intended. Are we good?
Yes ...we are good. Tone can be difficult to read online. I just wanted to make sure that I had not caused some offence:)