James Moore Poet Narrative

Notes About The Poem

Seeking Identity

(“Eye of God”, 2018, original encaustic/mirror mixed media)

Seeking Identity

Sometimes I seek an identity
Deeper than the one assigned by others
The loose and sloppy consensus
Of public opinion and perception.
Deeper still than the one I have created
For myself, through all I have accomplished
And gathered through experience
Reflected in possessions and preferences.
Deeper even than the composite lens
That everyone I know, friend and foe, expresses,
The various qualities they have
Both good and bad, which I
Through affinity and repulsion
Obviously identify with.

Beyond all these external references
What is left? What is genuinely me?

Somewhere before anything is done
Or known, accumulated and rejected
There is a flavor distinctly one’s own.
Certainly easier to observe in others
Than oneself, since our whole experience
Has been flavored with this flavor
The same way a fish only knows water,
We can know it inferentially
Glimpse it in photos, and experiences,
Qualities of friends and foe, strangers and all
The things we know and notice,
Think and dream, but to actually hold it
As something separate to call mine,
Now that is the ultimate dream.

(8/29/25)

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