Mirror

 Joel considered this poem to be a self-portrait. He wrote it in the midst of dealing with mental  illness, before we met.

Mirror

Enduring eternal isolation within the eye of the storm,
‘Tis an indiscernible tempest!
Turbulent emotions are the essence and meditations the form

My bridled affections distending outward within a starving heart,
‘Tis my soul’s unbearable burden!
Love’s liberation an imperative …lest it rend my life apart
 
Life’s unseen voyeur behind prison windows, condemned at conception,
‘Tis lonely life behind these blue eyes!
Oxygen deprivation birth, survived with a damaged connection
 
From catacombs within the mountain my identity’s projected,
‘Tis deep beneath the surface that I live!
Through subterranean distortions, I am opaquely reflected
 
With silence-borne clarity come well-meaning forms of eloquent wit,
‘Tis with pen in hand wherefore I speak!
An authentic array of my essence, displayed in poetic writ
 
~ by Joel Purkerson

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