Hi there! Please enjoy this latest poem of mine, about perception and self.
Yet sometimes, I wonder,
Do you know me?
Do I exist to you beyond my words, in between
The lines I trace with every step I take,
Every phrase I shape,
Am I more than the total
Of the sum of my parts?
When you see me,
Do you see me, myself,
I, the thinker of my thoughts and the dreamer of my dreams,
The wonderer and wanderer
And the place in which I hide
Behind the personas I’ve been
Building all my life
To disguise them?
When you take my hand, do you
Understand all the history
Written in the lines of my palms,
Etched into thorns under my fingernails;
Do you see who I see
When I look in the mirror?
And does it matter
If you don’t?
Maybe all I want to know is
Whether I’m enough
A Teacup Full of Stories 
Very deep. I like how the addressed party is left open-ended. That “you” can be anyone — a significant other, a friend, society as a whole, maybe even the narrator herself.
“I, the thinker of my thoughts and the dreamer of my dreams,”: I had to chew on this line for awhile. I, the thinker and the dreamer. Who else other than the narrator would be thinking her thoughts and her dreams? It seemed redundant but at the same time it could be a profession of the narrator’s individuality, like “thinker of my own thoughts and not what society says I should think”. Am I close to what you were trying to convey?
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Hi! Thank you for taking the time to do this and I’m glad you liked the poem! The whole thing is open for whatever interpretation you think fits best, but if you want to know what I meant by that line that’s cool too!
What I was going for was whether the “you” of the poem could perceive the narrator as she perceives herself, the innermost version of herself, who thinks her thoughts and dreams her dreams. She wants to know if the addressee has any sense of the version of herself in her own head – which seems impossible, but that’s part of the questioning nature of the poem, that she doesn’t know how she is seen or whether it matters.
I hope this helps, and thank you for the feedback!
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