I Did Not Need Or Want To Be Anyone But Myself Poem by Shalom Freedman

I DID NOT NEED OR WANT TO BE ANYONE BUT MYSELF

I did not need or want to be anyone but myself-
But was my self a self worth being?
I did not want to be Wallace Stevens
I did not want to be Wordsworth
I did not want to be Hopkins or Dickinson or Blake or Yeats-
They were all who they were
And a blessing to many-

I just want to be who I am
But am I a self worth being?
Or am I just a person
Whose name is namelessness?

I suppose I can live with my own namelessness
And my not being one of those with a real name-
I suppose I can live with being only who I am
However unworthy that is

Name or not, nameless or not
After all
I am only who I am -
And I will only pass this way one time-
Name or not.