Poetry: The tainted glass

The poet's eye
should not be mirrors
but glass;
To speak of one's self
one must turn one's gaze outward.


Photographers
instinctively understand this.
Among the greats,
selfies are rare.
And great conversationalists
do not speak of themselves.


Young poets struggle to believe this.
The challenge to put self aside
insults, hurts, them.


But, if they wish to be great,
this is the passage
they must walk through
In art, this dying to self
leads to a purer declaration of self.
This is what craft is about
the hiding which shows itself.


The poem,
being pure glass --
its taint, its color,
will reveal your true self.