Look Into My Eyes, Please
It is me you see again
I, from behind the mask am free
Look into my eyes, then tell me
Have I changed or am I the same?
This strange, sad pair belonging to
Too many faces, but one only
Remains within each shattered frame
Longing, longing not to be afraid...
That I might be becoming
The dream I have been dreaming
But you, you gave me the mask
The mask! Oh, I thought you knew
Because of this I withdrew from you
This disguise of mine it grew until
I cared too little to see revealed
The true identity I had concealed...
For the soul does not depend
On appearances only, but then
I was confused and very frightened
Of what reflected through this countenance
As God's expression is seen through nature
So is being the meaning of gesture
And I entrusted to this language
An explanation without words to the dance...
There must be other value
Than that which first greets the eye
With pleasure for its given form
demanding that share of attention due
And trading for a brief piece of mind
The mask I have worm, grieved and scorned
Like a spell, hence the stain is removed
When cleansed by your loving anodyne
I am from this enchantment form...
poem by Romeo Della Valle
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
The Right Mask
One night a poem came up to a poet
From now on, it said, you must wear a mask.
What kind of mask? asked the poet.
A rose mask, said the poem.
I've used it already, said the poet,
I've exhausted it.
Then wear the mask that's made out of
a nightingale's song, use that mask.
Oh, it's an old mask, said the poet,
it's all used up.
Nonsense, said the poem, it's the perfect mask,
still, try on the god mask,
now that mask illuminates heaven.
It's a tight mask, said the poet,
and the stars crawl about in it like ants.
Then try on the troubador's mask, or the singer's mask,
try on all the popular masks.
I have, said the poet, but they fit so easily.
The poem was getting impatient,
it stamped its feet like a child,
it screamed. Then try on your own face,
try the one mask that terrifies,
the mask only you could possibly use,
the mask only you could wear out.
The poet tore at his face til it bled,
this mask? he yelled, this mask?
Yes, said the poem, yes.
But the poet was tired of masks,
he had lived too long with them,
he snatched at the poem and stuck it in his face.
Its screams were muffled, it wept, it tried to be lyrical,
it wriggled into his eyes and mouth.
Next day his friends were afraid of him,
he looked so distorted.
Now it's the right mask, said the poem, the right mask.
It clung to him lovingly and never let go again.
poem by Brian Patten
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Drop The Mask
(tim tickner, christopher ward, diana ross)
Look in the mirror, who do you see
Where is the man that you used to be
When you turn off the world and turn down the lights
Do you ever wonder who you are tonight
I knew you then, I love you now
You can call me up when it gets you down
Behind the shades theres someone real
Behind your eyes I wonder how you feel
This is me talking to you
Theres just one thing Im asking you to do
You gotta drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
No one knows what youre going through
Whatever it is, Ill be there for you
If you drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
I was there when it all began
I still remember the boy within the man
I understand what it means to run and hide
Theres so much that were holding onto deep down inside
This is me talking to you
The only thing that I want you to do
You gotta drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
No one knows what youre going through
Whatever it is, Ill be there for you
When you drop the mask, be yourself
Drop the mask
Trust someone else
Drop the mask
Drop the mask
Let down your guard, open your heart
Unlose your chains, dont be afraid
Drop the mask
Be yourself
Be yourself
Trust someone else
You gotta drop the mask
Let down your guard, oh you gotta drop the mask
Trust someone else
You gotta drop the mask
song performed by by Diana Ross
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You look better that way
Are you my friend ?
Are you my plumber ?
Are you my God ?
What do you do ?
Wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Complicated crushed up disappointed squirming angry thrusting stabbing regretting starving greedy human alien being, struggling down the street, up the alley, in the elevator, through the party, to the office, in the bedroom, on your way to the morgue. Bullshitting, lying, doing a good deed or feeling loved barely possible. Aware of insatiable demands of not a society all around you. Chunky frat boys in their shorts, pimps with old semite eyes, sex hoochies of the jungle, sensitive smart alec college graduates, critics fronting franticly in New York city, every body in L.A just plain licking ass or having it licked, irony in place of balls, balls in place of brains, brains in place of soul, where is the soul?, where is the love?, where am i?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
Which mask are you ?
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
You're wearing a mask
which mask are you ?
song performed by by Iggy Pop
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Facade (a tritina)
So many have come to dwell behind a panarchy mask
Lost between the delusive dimensions of identity
Unable to perceive that which is deemed real
They dare not throw aside the caparison that veils the real
Lest those that wish to deceive and to mask
Would reveal the abstersive truth of their own identity
Yet if all would but don the verisimilitude of their identity
Then the shadows cast would corrivate into the real
And no longer would there lie merit within a mask
Are you the mask of your identity or are you real?
poem by Sheri Hockman
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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What's My Name? !
What is my name and who am I?
I do not ask myself
But you
Who
Ever you are
I ask who is this David Knox
Who remains under this mask
Just a boy who runs fast?
I pray I'm more, even more than talks
With others or with you, am I more than just who i was before?
Who is this kid any more?
Is he still one to abhor?
If he is, who is me?
How can this be?
For I know him not
Though I hear every thought
I don't know myself, or what's inside
I forgot what I pledged to hide
Maye all that remains is the mask
But then I must ask
What is my name?
If my mask holds my fame
Who is he>?
Who is this shadow of a man?
Who is this dark messenger who spreads light
Who is this dead messenger that brings life
Who is this mask that urges you to take off yours
Who is this boy who claims to find his identity in Christ?
Who is David Knox
What makes 'me'
Who is that?
What's my name?
And what's that means for who I am
Tell me you must know if I do not
Because SOMEONE must!
TELL ME! WHAT'S MY NAME? !
poem by David Knox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Masquarade
You and me
Alone in the corner
You took out your mask
And showed me your true identity
You told me everything
From the darkest moment of your life to all your blissful moment
You told me all those little secrets about you which no one knows about
You trust me, you said
And i do trust you
Im mystified
I did try to unleash my mask
And to show you the real me
But i was afraid
I was afraid that you wont accept me
I was afraid that you'll me in darkness
And because of that i tied back my mask
Ive hidden my true identity from you
It feels so wrong
But i dont wanna lose you
Because...
I love you
poem by Kristal Clear
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Climb Pyramid Steps Touch The Sky
Take off the life mask
by putting on a mask
for a festival carnival
of community celebration
put on the masquerade mask
to put on an original face
free an original mind
thought is a pattern mask
culture web fabricated
taught in word rhetoric
free soul sought mind
escape word limitations
ancient ritual pathways
climb pyramid steps
to touch unmasked sky.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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The leader of men in warfare can show himself to his followers only through a mask, a mask that he must make for himself, but a mask made in such form as will mark him to men of his time and place as the leader they want and need.
quote by John Keegan
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Because the mask is your face, the face is a mask, so I'm thinking of the face as a mask because of the way I see faces is coming from an African vision of the mask which is the thing that we carry around with us, it is our presentation, it's our front, it's our face.
quote by Faith Ringgold
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Love
Lust for power and more power
Is your mask with a power monger
You may think then to annihilate
The weak for the conquest ultimate
Of your devotee- the power monger.
Money and miser in this pair
Of greed you become embodiment
You are a quantity for a miser
Of money and it's aggrandizement
For which he crosses all extents.
Lover and beloved in this pair
You mask adroitly carnel desires
Infatuation & longing on separation.
A mastery you show in presentation
In celestial form human relations.
poem by Ratnakar Mandlik
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Wearing It Now
People are around
I know I’ll be alright
The mask doesn’t hurt
No tears
Come from the mask
I put my own on
Thinking that’s the only way it should be
Becoming someone not even I can recognize
In the puddle on the ground
Stomping in it knowing this is not me
Then when the people go away
So does mask
This is the scene in the play I don’t know my lines
For I get scared and choke every time
Mine my mask just changes from
White-ish pink to a dark red
Where the mask simply goes from
Oh look at me I don’t do any thing wrong
To black showing it’s true colors
Whoever said black was all the rainbow mixed together
Is wring in this case
There is no other feeling other then black
Like truck tiers black
No sadness no joy just anger and hatred
The mask gets switched around from him to her
All the time I never know who is wearing it or
If the both of them are sharing it at the same time
So walking through that broken old door
That squeaks and carries on when you open it
You never know if this time
Will be the one time that will kill you
Or break your back
But you hope like heck you make it through
‘Cause if you don’t then you know your not
The only one the mask subjects
And the others will not survive without you
poem by Mrs. Cynosure
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Love Me without My Mask
Love Me without My Mask
By: Adam M. Snow
Many years, I am who I'm not,
Life pass by yet myself I forgot,
Living life not as mine but mine.
Could you love me without my mask?
But it not be as divine.
The truth, myself I hid from you,
You know me not yet I know it's true.
I long for myself to fly and be free,
But I stand vivified and afraid,
The truth, haunting the very soul of me.
Love me without my mask is all I plead.
Not be the ghost but love I need.
I long for you to know the truth.
You deny my past, my future.
Cast me aside, I am uncouth.
poem by Adam M. Snow
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Sweet Mask
Hi dear, Hello dear
I remember father telling us,
Of girls, who hid behind curtains
Of girls who lit fires
On faces of, to be, bridegrooms
Of maids who wore masks.
And to reveal, were suitors.
The mask, I have seen
This mask, that ye have won
I wish I would peel
I know, beneath lies, no stern
Beneath, a longing, honeyed
Heart, lies in heaven
Ecstasy, a waits, a clock ticks
Sweet mask, ye will, peel!
poem by Charles Jagongo Ogola
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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She'll hide her face
She'll hide her face when shes not alone.
she slaps on her a mask, but its not her own.
It's the mask that everyone else wears.
She wants to be just like them
supposedly free with glee.
Free from her troubles, worries and strife.
Free from her demons that dominate her life.
But when the darkness falls.
And she's all her alone she can't hide her face.
Her mask falls and crumbles apart.
Her heart fills with the numbness she's had for many years.
Now her tears will fall she's all alone.
In her last bid for a better life,
She let the mask slip once.
She had to put it on again as they stared at her in disbelife.
The world didn't want to see her pain.
Rather belives she's an annoying pain.
So Her mask went back on.
Well she planned the day when she'd be gone.
poem by Amy Louise Kerswell
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Mask That Covers My Pain
I wear a mask,
A mask that covers my pain,
I wear a smile,
A smile to cover my frown,
Secretly I am sad,
No ones here to hold me,
No ones here to love me,
I have no one,
My mask covers the pain in my eyes,
My mask covers the pain in my face,
My mask covers the pain in my heart,
My mask covers the pain in me,
I am but alone,
I am but in pain,
I am the only one,
I put a mask on,
To cover my pain,
poem by Samantha Guinen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Mask
yes, there was this man in the village
he was happy.
yet, no one know who he really was
even until death.
all his life he wore the mask of the happy man
dignified and praised.
when he lived till 60 he wore the mask through and through
he was famous for his love and charity.
till his funeral the people cried
there i saw the mask, smiling and always willing to help
always empathizing, always willing to understand
the plight of each and everyone
and he was buried a happy man
time buries all including the mask of the happy man
if only they had taken time to dig him out from his grave
they could have seen the rotten ugliness beneath the mask of happiness
let him go, those who knew later said
he was a happy man, he served us so well, let him be, we pray.
i know the ugliness of his true self
but i guess, no one likes to hear what it is.
my lips are sealed
now we must praise him again: posthumously.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I hail thee! Woman
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
Each day it is an awesome task
To cover her face with a mask
A different one she wears each day
A mask of beauty beneath a mask of love
A mask of pain embroided by sorrow
Lifes of loved ones lost
She would gladly like to re-borrow
She is the perfect player
She is the perfect mother
She is the perfect daughter
She is the perfect lover
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
There she wears her mask again
A mask of conniving sharpness and evil
And a parting deal with the devil
A mask of infinite ideas
And one of fictional loving care
Player one, two, three
I hail thee! Woman
Copyright 2006 - Sylvia Chidi
poem by Sylvia Chidi
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Mask
In life you meet various people,
some cunning some innocently simple.
the two types are always disguised,
by a mask of emotions, carefully devised.
When you meet someone you cant be sure,
whether their heart is corrupt or pure.
' how much more time? ' you ask,
'before I get to know, the man behind the mask.'
Sometimes you are lucky enough,
to find a soft heart,
beneath an exterior that's rough.
but alas those unlucky souls,
who meet people with selfish goals.
They call them a friend and hold them dear,
but do not realise, that they are not as they appear.
It hurts a lot when 'friends' turn foes,
For sharp thorns do accompany the beautiful rose.
Now, I too hide the real me,
behind a mask put up for the world to see.
Too afraid to let it go,
in case a friend turns out to be a foe.
I meet people with a smile on my face,
but keep the mask handy, just in case.
Wish I could meet someone true,
so I could throw away the mask,
with which I grew.
poem by Dipti Date Gokhale
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Mask
You wear a mask upon your face
So people wont know of your sin and disgrace
Or of the things that you have said and done
And of the life you have ended and then again begun.
You cover up your lines and all of your tears
So no one can see the worries and your fears
Or of the anger and the hate that's on your face
So upon your face a mask you did paste.
But I wonder if anyone really does know
The color of your cheeks or the shape of your nose
Or the saddened bags underneath your eyes
From the guilt you felt from the tears of your lies.
And when you meet people I wonder do they stare
Maybe they think to themselves, who is really behind there
But then you don't care what people might say or ask
As you can conceal all, when you wear your mask.
And so that mask you will wear till your dying days
As it will become you in so many very different ways
But one day in death your mask it will then be removed
Then man and all will stand in sadness, as they see the real you.
Randy L. McClave
poem by Randy McClave
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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He's Back
You're with your baby
And you're parked alone
On a summer night
You're deep in love
But you're deeper in the woods
You think you're doin' alright
You heard a voice
Did you see that face
Or was it just a dream
It can't be real
That only happens, babe
On the movie screen
If you see him comin'
Get away if you can
He's a dangerous man
Throws a dangerous party man
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's going out tonight
Going to make his rounds to get his fill
Standing staight and tall
He's a ton of fun
And he's dressed to kill
You know you read he was gone
It surely is him
But he's back on the prowl
Again and again and again
Don't you know
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
You know you read he was gone
It surely is him
But he's back on the prowl
Again and again and again
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
The man behind the mask
And he's out of control
He's back
The man behind the mask
He crawled out of his hole
Just to rock and roll
He's back
song performed by by Alice Cooper
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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