Outside Myself Poem by Severien Meyer

Outside Myself”
(by: Sev Meyer)



The shimmering Lake,
Calm and reflective
Beneath the summer moon,
Beckons me forth,
Enticing me,
As the Sahara’s mirage
Would wantonly lure
The sun-parched, weary nomad.

Of little means,
I shove the wooden boat
Away from shore
And begin disturbing
The glassy, mirrored, miracle.

Oars dipping into liquid blackness,
Swirl water toward the shore-bound pines.
And I, within this man-made shell,
Let my thoughts take wing... to an earlier time.

Loosed by thought from earthly bonds,
I become the Spirit of the Lake.
And now, beyond myself, become...
The Iroquois, the Cayuga, the Menomonee...
Drifting freely in birch canoe,
through the netherworld
Of bygone, native stories.

Floating in this time-warp craft
Above the fish and age-smoothed rock,
I am the fish,
The silent pine,
The spotted fawn,
The slayer’s arrow.







Caught in a blissful mental swoon
And really all too soon,
I waken from this fragile dream
Outside my mind’s lagoon.

I drag my float-craft further up,
Secure now on the sand.
And feel my touch-stone dreams fly off
To live in distant lands.

Yes, I have been outside myself,
I’ve surfed the comet’s wake,
And owe this cleansing of my mind
To a moon-lit, placid lake.