Getting To Know You Poem by David Whalen

Poetry pretty much mirrors
Different stages and places
In one’s life

It’s given away… in what you say
In your sense
of peace or strife

Your words describe you…
They strip from your soul
The shrouds and lay bare…

Your true thoughts, your ambitions
Your insights, your inhibitions
You perhaps unknowingly share

It’s a venting perhaps…
A release from the restraints…
Of cold hard reality

In some it’s of hope
In others of complaints
And in others still…of finality

In others it’s a cry for validation
A way of saying “I’m me…
I’m still here! ”

In others It’s a cry of repudiation
Saying “listen to me now,
But don’t come near! ”

When I read a poem
I see the person
Behind the prose

And that I see…
this person properly
Is something I can only suppose

You’re not writing a poem or a rhyme
You’re openly inviting me into your mind
And just why? …only God knows

One develops opinions about you
And biases, both good and bad
Based on what you’ve unknowingly said

In your writings, choice of subject
Turn of phrase, become suspect
And lets one get into your head

Perhaps I should not…perhaps it’s not right
But I know you a bit better
each poem that you write