Please Hear What I'm Not Saying

Discussion in 'Poetry and Lyrics Forum' started by BubblyMartini, Jun 7, 2005.

  1. BubblyMartini

    BubblyMartini !!!HAWM

    Do Read the whole poem....
    I think many would would relate to it;)
    .
    .

    Please Hear What I'm Not Saying --By Charles C. Finn

    Don't be fooled by me.
    Don't be fooled by the face I wear
    for I wear a mask, a thousand masks,
    masks that I'm afraid to take off,
    and none of them is me.

    Pretending is an art that's second nature with me,
    but don't be fooled,
    for God's sake don't be fooled.
    I give you the impression that I'm secure,
    that all is sunny and unruffled with me, within as well
    as without,
    that confidence is my name and coolness my game,
    that the water's calm and I'm in command
    and that I need no one,
    but don't believe me.
    My surface may seem smooth but my surface is my mask,
    ever-varying and ever-concealing.
    Beneath lies no complacence.
    Beneath lies confusion, and fear, and aloneness.
    But I hide this. I don't want anybody to know it.
    I panic at the thought of my weakness exposed.
    That's why I frantically create a mask to hide behind,
    a nonchalant sophisticated facade,
    to help me pretend,
    to shield me from the glance that knows.

    But such a glance is precisely my salvation, my only hope,
    and I know it.
    That is, if it's followed by acceptance,
    if it's followed by love.
    It's the only thing that can liberate me from myself,
    from my own self-built prison walls,
    from the barriers I so painstakingly erect.
    It's the only thing that will assure me
    of what I can't assure myself,
    that I'm really worth something.
    But I don't tell you this. I don't dare to, I'm afraid to.
    I'm afraid your glance will not be followed by acceptance,
    will not be followed by love.
    I'm afraid you'll think less of me,
    that you'll laugh, and your laugh would kill me.
    I'm afraid that deep-down I'm nothing
    and that you will see this and reject me.

    So I play my game, my desperate pretending game,
    with a facade of assurance without
    and a trembling child within.
    So begins the glittering but empty parade of masks,
    and my life becomes a front.
    I tell you everything that's really nothing,
    and nothing of what's everything,
    of what's crying within me.
    So when I'm going through my routine
    do not be fooled by what I'm saying.
    Please listen carefully and try to hear what I'm not saying,
    what I'd like to be able to say,
    what for survival I need to say,
    but what I can't say.

    I don't like hiding.
    I don't like playing superficial phony games.
    I want to stop playing them.
    I want to be genuine and spontaneous and me
    but you've got to help me.
    You've got to hold out your hand
    even when that's the last thing I seem to want.
    Only you can wipe away from my eyes
    the blank stare of the breathing dead.
    Only you can call me into aliveness.
    Each time you're kind, and gentle, and encouraging,
    each time you try to understand because you really care,
    my heart begins to grow wings--
    very small wings,
    very feeble wings,
    but wings!

    With your power to touch me into feeling
    you can breathe life into me.
    I want you to know that.
    I want you to know how important you are to me,
    how you can be a creator--an honest-to-God creator--
    of the person that is me
    if you choose to.
    You alone can break down the wall behind which I tremble,
    you alone can remove my mask,
    you alone can release me from my shadow-world of panic,
    from my lonely prison,
    if you choose to.
    Please choose to.

    Do not pass me by.
    It will not be easy for you.
    A long conviction of worthlessness builds strong walls.
    The nearer you approach to me
    the blinder I may strike back.
    It's irrational, but despite what the books say about man
    often I am irrational.
    I fight against the very thing I cry out for.
    But I am told that love is stronger than strong walls
    and in this lies my hope.
    Please try to beat down those walls
    with firm hands but with gentle hands
    for a child is very sensitive.

    Who am I, you may wonder?
    I am someone you know very well.
    For I am every man you meet
    and I am every woman you meet.

    Charles C. Finn
    September 1966
     
    6string_addict likes this.
  2. $cReWdR!veR

    $cReWdR!veR .:: Sweetheart ::.

    its pretty nice and does relate to me in some ways...
     
    DrSaurabh likes this.
  3. DrSaurabh

    DrSaurabh Wh@+s Up D0C

    It reminds me of stealth bombers.....the B2 in particular.........
    Great poem Martina.....keep em coming.......Please keep em coming
     
  4. 6string_addict

    6string_addict * Addicted Guitarist * <img src="https://www.india

    great poem , martina.....it read it full...reps for you ya....
     
  5. BubblyMartini

    BubblyMartini !!!HAWM

    One wonderful poem i'd posted long back..

    its worth reading people!
    Especially for those who are a bit bitter and a li'l sweet.. ;)
     
  6. d_ist_urb_ed

    d_ist_urb_ed Genuflect b*tches!

    Who? Me? I think...
     
  7. BubblyMartini

    BubblyMartini !!!HAWM

    nope..its not you...
     
  8. anshphenomenon

    anshphenomenon Rape me :boff:

    that was long..
    i read abt the first 4 paras..
    i got what u wanted to say..
     
  9. BubblyMartini

    BubblyMartini !!!HAWM

    thanks dude..
    do try and read the whole thing in your spare time ..
     
  10. bjr

    bjr Lady of the Evening

    You posted this for me *dances*


    pfft, I've already said ages ago that I am quite different in real life.


    hah, this poem was like one big scolding. It makes me start feeling smaller and smaller as I read it :'(
     
  11. BubblyMartini

    BubblyMartini !!!HAWM

    aww dear,

    everyone relates to it some line or the other
    but the whole goes well with only a few

    Psst.... its good to be different ;)
     
  12. slash_i_m

    slash_i_m Laid to Rest

    whoa thatz long.might be good
     
  13. abhimanjrekar

    abhimanjrekar ----&gt; Zhol-Man&lt;----

    this was the longessssstttttt poem i ever read.....was worth it but...
     
  14. amit82cse

    amit82cse Silent observeR

    Its all about perception!!! Nothing else!!!
     
  15. rock all

    rock all New Member

    dam good

    its a great piece of poem, very true and sensitive... nice keep it cumin
     

Share This Page