It’s Fandango’s Flashback Friday! This poem was originally written for the dVerse Poet’s Pub exactly one year ago today. I hope you enjoy it.
For today’s Meeting the Bar at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing to the First-Person Narrative, using “I am” as part of our poem. The voice and the specific point of view is you, the poet.
I am somebody
else not the one
I used to be, the one
everyone remembers.
Even my shadow
is a
stranger’s silhouette —
the shadow
of what once was.
Sometimes, even I am fooled
but when I can glance quickly enough
(before it knows I’ve seen it)
it is only obvious that
it
should be following
somebody else.
Ha.
Considering I have been out of the poetry and writing game for about 4 years. I understand.
I am a different person than i was when i walked away. Yet the shadow of who i once was still follows me around.
I guess we have to choose. Dowe live up to who the shadow says we are. Or do we stay true to ourselves.
I think the later is more healthy.
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Thank you Brian. And welcome back to the poetry/writing world!
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This is like a puzzle to me and I know how it is when it is applied to oneself. There are parts of us that we think we know, or we think we have outgrown but it still stays with us. I like the new you.
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Thank you, GRace. Much appreciated!
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“Even my shadow
is a
stranger’s silhouette…”
This is just… wow! I can resonate with this. I feel too that this is an intricate puzzle. It also feels like a different view of oneself. The feeling of a stranger even though it was, at one point, you. It gives me an essence of “are you different than who you were before?” or “did you change too much?” as major themes in this poem. This is amazing and so emotionally devastating.
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Wow. Thanks, Lucy. Writing this piece was the weirdest experience. I have no clue where it came from. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that it made sense. It literally wrote itself. I’m glad you found something in it. 🙂
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I like to think of it as evolving….smiles………I love the lines about glancing quickly, before the shadow knows you’ve seen it. Made me smile. I find your About paragraph SO interesting. Wow!
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Thanks, Sherry! Much appreciated.
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Bizarre… I am enthralled.
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It’s bizarre alright. A very trippy piece. Not quite sure from whence it came.
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Oh, if only we could leave (many? most? all?) of our shadows behind… Well done!
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A captivating write. Our life experiences mold our character, but the core “me” is always only a breath away!
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Which face do we show to the world, and which face (or shadow) do they really see? Well done.
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I love your take on the prompt being a shadow of your former self. It does us good every now and a gain to reassess ourselves. Surely we are changing as we get older. Terrific poem 💕🙂
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We are often surprised by ourselves. The shadow is used very effectively here. (K)
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Nice one. 🙂
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Provocative writing. We are who we are at any one time, and it isn’t really fair to any of our selves to rate which self if most worthy. We did what we had to do, and we do what we have to do.
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if = is
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Oh that shadow is a slippery guest, cannot stay attached with soap, has to be sewn on (surgically?) to stay attached, until we are ready to fly straight on to morning, it must hurt a little. You have described depersonalization so well, I spent most of the decades of my life not feeling I am truly in my own skin, it is a common malady for us transgender folk, the euphoria that comes when you can live in your own skin, I think so often taken for granted by many of us. Now I look at my shadow, and it lilts a little, and the hair bounces and the summer dress billows, things I don’t know if some even notice in themselves, I am glad you have made an effort to engage with your shadow. By the way, are you still in the wilds of Birmingham? My son is starting at UAB med school this week, I am in Huntsville. Be well. Oh, and my drummer girlfriend has found a song you can use for your country, Suzanistan: (this band has some sort of Magic City connection somewhere)
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