"Always a mask
Held in the slim hand whitely,
Always she had a mask before her face...
And then -I blundered, [and I]
looked behind the mask....
She had become
Merely a hand
Holding a mask
With grace."
Excerpt from "The Mask"
-Author unknown
My Dear Friend,
Would you with goodwill of heart consider?....
* ** *** **** *****
ONLY NO ONE
If I can summon the bravery
To lower my self-made mask;
If I can steady my gaze upon the glass
Peering deeply into my own eyes only...
Dare I ask, dare I consider...
Who am I ?
They say I have never been anybody,
I will never be anybody.
Who am I, really?
I am no one.
Who am I ?
They say I am only one of the horde
Bound hoof and neck to a lock-step,
Security seeking status quo
-a commoner of 740 ten thousand thousands.
I am invisible, unimportant.
Who am I ?
They say I am only a random mutation of a billion
Billion years of inert gaseous dust,
And breezy chaos.
I am indistinct.
They say I am the statistical improbability of a disjunct and instinctual impulse
-an amphibious leap from out the murky,
Aqua-saline depths onto a mass of parched earth.
I am insignificant.
Who am I ?
They say I am a paraplegic pile of anaerobic slime
And primitive ganglia unconsciously evolving for eons,
Awaiting legs and feet
And perchance an eye to un-spontaneously sprout.
I am inglorious.
Who am I ?
They say I am the castoff cosmic refuse of a far away
And ancient cataclysmic anomaly.
I am ignoble.
Dust and vapor, unmethodically assembled,
Purposeless.
If true,
Then who am I ?
I am no one....
...and yet, no, I hesitate...
Oh, but wait!
Possibly they have misconceived.
Could it be their cognitive biases are no less deluding than mine?
If they really believe their own words
Then why even bother?
Why would they broadcast as fact the meaningless conclusions
Of their own hypothetical and dismal religious assumptions?
Perhaps I have been misled by
The blind guessing of anemic theorists,
And thus I have followed headlong
For so long into misjudgment.
I choose to reject this -their- notion.
I am under estimated.
Who am I ?
I am a living being -human.
Born a son;
I was a grandson.
I was a great grandson.
I am nephew;
A cousin,
A brother.
I was a stepson;
A neighbor,
A friend.
I am a husband.
I am a father.
I am an uncle.
I am in relationship with other beings
-human.
Who am I ?
I am a resonating, vibrating,
Oscillating living force intending for good.
I have the capacity to dream.
In only an instant, I am able to imagine my way free of perhaps every short fall.
Tell me, you who are called
The intellectual and tenured masters of this earth,
Why in my insignificance do I see more?
Why if I were caged in bars
Could I close my eyes
And choose to yet see stars?
I am a dreamer of dreams for a better day.
Who am I ?
Yes, I am just one of billions before me,
Billions around me,
And perhaps billions yet to come.
I am only one.
But still, I am distinctly one.
Who am I ?
I am one of the lost now rescued;
One who was cast off, abandoned as worthless.
Yet, through unbounded favor,
I was sought out,
And at great cost reclaimed, restored, redeemed.
I am precious cargo.
Priceless.
Rare and treasured.
I am unique, one of a kind.
Who am I ?
I am the Great Prince's brother,
Fellow heir to the Imperial splendor of
The Ancient of Days.
I am a son of the Father,
And as such am fully entitled to all rights and privileges bestowed.
Noble in my ascent,
I am royalty.
Who am I?
I am a new creation
-genetically reinvigorated and made alive, made complete and whole-
Creative in my abilities,
Capable of knowing more,
Seeing more,
Hearing more, doing more.
I am spontaneously, creatively more.
Who am I?
I am a shining city on a hill.
I am one called out from darkness to enter into
And walk in scintillating light.
An ambassador occupying residence in the embassy,
I dwell as it were in a foreign land -hopeful-
Performing my service,
Yet longing with all my being
To be recalled to the heart of my homeland.
Who am I?
I am an adventurer,
Hand selected from before time was;
A precious gleaming gem,
A fellow priest among elegant sisters and proud brothers.
I am a weary, but patient traveler
Always scanning the distant horizon
For that ever shinnng City
Whose maker and builder is God.
Who am I?
I am a fearsome heart-led warrior,
Fierce in my convictions -a new iconoclast-
Yet eager to know more,
Be shown more,
Understand more.
I am humble in self-importance,
Lavish in the praise of others,
An encourager to that soul caught in the tempest.
Who am I ?
I am dangerously threatening to what would parasitically enslave another.
Young at heart, fleet in spirit,
I am -though inadequate in my mortal attempt-
A defender of the timid yet kindhearted and gentle soul.
Who am I?
I am all these things,
Though I deserve to be none
Were it not for the grace of all ages.
And yet, here I stand
Equipped and alert a watchman on the wall -no more important
Or significant than any other-
And yet no less.
Who am I?
I am one discontent to not grow,
To not learn anew.
I am one emerging from the engulfing shadows.
Once torched to ground,
I am one rising
-arising in flight from the ashes....
Who am I?
I am one distinct.
I am one noble.
I am one beloved.
I am one significant.
And by the one Great God of the Heavens...
I am one revived.
And with ample breath yet to breathe,
By the sweetest grace
I • am • one • still • alive.
Now.
In the quiet of this moment,
In the private and sacred places of your heart...
May I ask you, dearest friend,
As I catch your eyes,
As you see into mine...
Tell me
WHO
ARE
YOU
?
Mark Allan Gillem
Olympic To The Sea
Copyright ©
2 July 2016
All Rights Reserved
* ** *** **** *****
Cry out for wisdom, yearn for understanding,
and reclaim your courage,
Mark
PS :
"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God...
"Beloved, now [!] are we the sons of God...
-The First Letter of John,
Chapter 3, Verses 1a, 2a
KJV
WHO ARE you, REALLY?
Credits:
WRITTEN, PHOTOGRAPHED, AND CREATED BY MARK ALLAN GILLEM