Mirror Mirror

the paradox of reflections that reveal untold truths

Mirror Mirror

 

Bending shadows in the mirror

Will obscure the thoughts of those

Who are humble and content and

Stealing thought from ones in

Peril, seeking comfort, seeking pain.

 

When the looking glass is overshadowed

By one’s terror looking back

One may also feel imperiled

Looking backward at the attempts

To reconcile

The ghastly feelings

Seeking light.

 

When these frightening mirrored thoughts

Are casting shadows of their own

One may seek what one determines to be

Pictures of the past,

Instead of lurching forward, touching

Looking glass’s eye.

A quest once thought undoable, now

Coaxing rueful sighs.

 

The looking glass looks back to see

One planning, ever reaching

For the days that never passed.

Never seeing one’s own past.

 

dan © 2015

Author's Note

Reviews

[Wraith.]

Interesting read. Always had a thing about mirrors.

[dan]

Thank you for taking the time for the read/review. I've bookmarked your page and will visit to return the favor. take care...dan

[Kelly Scheppers]

Wow, this is staggering writing, Dan! It reminded me also of Plath...the awe is certainly there, and the contrast is impeccable.


My best,
Kelly

[dan]

Thank you, Kelly. I thought you disowned me. (kidding) Nice to hear from you, as always. take care...dan

[Kelly Scheppers]

I've been preoccupied with something I'll be sharing with everyone here...soon! ; )

[Roshan Nair]

We control our perception is what I take from this piece no matter what life tries to show us or causes us to think back to. powerful piece dan
Great work!

[dan]

Roshan, A very perceptive interpretation of the piece. Thanks so much for the read/review. take care...dan

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i like this, Dan....it reminds me of Plath's "Mirror"--

she used the mirror's personification and relationship with an older woman, i believe, to portray herself. How she looked into the mirror every day and didn't like what she saw. Not so much on the outside as on the inside---
and "like a terrible fish" that feeling rose to the surface for her.

even if we try to block out the past, it still haunts us.

[dan]

Jacob, Truth be told, I though I actually overreached a bit on this one. I wasn't thrilled with the flow at times....at times it seems forced. I do appreciate your take on it, though, and it makes me feel a bit better about it. And you mention Sylvia Plath....my favorite poet is Anne Sexton, Plath's dear friend. I have a poem posted on WC called "Anne Transformed." Small world when it comes to confessional poets who died by their own hand, I guess. Thanks again. take care...dan

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i did my masters thesis on both plath and sexton.

sometimes there are parts of poems that don't flow, but often it is because of an uncomfortable idea that jars...and the flow of the poem matches that jarring.

i will look for "Anne Transformed"---

[Bonaventure Onuabuchi]

An aphorism is here; thanks for sharing Dan.

[dan]

Thank you for your read/review. take care...dan