Grandmother was a beauty in her way
Dark brown skin like a Hershey bar
Salt n pepper black hair wisped by wind
As she snaps green peas in a bowl
The sunflowers she planted so romantic
Casting seeds like red roses in the breeze
Feeding the birds in belly and our eyes
Like bowling balls knocking down such sights
Her bare feet ashy knock knees calloused
From praying the most selfless prayers
She dips snuff and spits in an old Pepsi can
Unashamed of her poverty and southern accent
(“Eye of the Beholder” detail, 2020, original encaustic)
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder
But then again, so is everything else.
(11/19/25)
I appear ugly when alone
I look normal in company
Self-loathing needs no embrace
Rather than scoring myself
I'm ugly prettiness wronged
I’m shocked by my beauty
Again and again, till I'm cuts
When each slice is mystery
The clue to beauty's murder
Is finding how lovely I was
If everyone is like me then
Who then is ugly like me?
When you leave, I'm homely
The less fortunate comforting
There, self-hatred finds a home
Even if it's a tent by the road
Diaspora from self, preservation
Society casts normalcy
However, I seem to look
Self-loathing is inherited
Plastic surgeons can't erase plain
If disfigured, burn your image
Better defeat than surrender
Victory is my futility
Cry out to your mothers
Who still loves you mangled
Before crimes against your face
Ugly is the eyes of the beholder
Those pretty eyes looking in
Defille your ugliness for good
We remake pristine history
In our honest image
I have taken pictures
Of a perfect summer's day;
Flowers, alive and new, in spring;
An elephant, majestic and proud, staring at me.
I have witnessed
A robin standing curiously in the fresh snow;
A blackbird feeding her young;
The dew on the grass on a crisp autumn morning;
Dogs running wildly and happily in a field.
But none have been more beautiful
Than you and the smile that graces your lips.
I have seen all the wonder this earth has to offer
From far and wide,
But nothing is more perfect than home:
And my home is with you.
FOR EYE AM THE EyE OF THE BEHOLDER-
Who am I to mumble?
Righteously so I should be humble
For I am the eye of the beholder
To seek, to plead grace, to see your face amongst your people
When I look at me, it’s honestly not me I see
For when you see me, I am defying eye see not me
Lord I seek grace with you, my entire fate is in you
I just learnt what to do, so I plead to seek your grace
That I may see your face
Mine faith is the substance hope for
Evidence of the things not seen
For I cry, for I cry out to Him
I smile for my burden, already won, My Father God Elohim
Did win,
Night time, new day dawn and noon I cry out
In distress and He My Father heard my distress
My Father God Elohim, Did win,
Night time, new day dawn and noon I cry out
In distress and He My Father heard my distress
Lord I seek grace with you
My entire fate is in you, I just learnt what to do
So I plead to seek your grace
That I may see your face
For eye am the eye of the beholder
8/16/2024
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
Beauty more than ever
Will run its fickle course
It never lasts forever
But may leave a pretty corpse
she is so ugly
the operation went wrong
she's so beautiful
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Rare trees and abandoned homes
Where doors are full of bullet holes
And the wicked sun tries to dye the paint
On the walls that smell like a salty water
Of the place where mermaids sang to Ulysses.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Traffic jams
giant malls
toxic environment
Everyone is in a hurry
Even the guys filling the air with Hari Rama
Brining hope for no one
And money for beneficiaries.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
I escaped to the peaceful land
It keeps me rested and maybe a bit bored
So I take a train to a bigger city when needed.
I am still learning how to love all the places
Find a light in the darkness
And the Golden Ratio in the chaos.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
And I am trying to be the one.
11/06/2022
Surrounded by toys the toddler played in the sand with three rocks and five sticks.
Today’s blessing goes out to anyone
who has ever been made to feel
they are different….
ugly,
unattractive or bizarre.
May you be blessed to remember:
beauty is in the eye of the beholder…
so look in the mirror and BEHOLD
just how beautiful you are.
Heard it said, “beauty's in the eye of the beholder”
My eyes see much beauty, sometimes lose composure
Get all wiggly
It's a conspiracy
To trap us guys, it easily causes overexposure
nature's lace up for the taking
a sunray glorifying leaf, stick, pebble and cloud
in my eye each precious jewels
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
Told beauty is in the eye of the beholder
I realize I’m getting uglier as I grow older,
My fair skin is now blotched and fine-lined
And any beauty increasingly hard to find.
Mirrors, constant purveyors of bad news,
Only bring solace when I realize, for sure,
People who look at me see different views!
Written July 16, 2022
"Crumbling is not an instant act..."
Emily Dickinson
Why do we find old buildings beautiful,
books, whose pages are crumbling to dust;
weatherworn wooden doors once dutiful,
old cars' magnificent sheen turned to rust?
What calls us to treasure the ruins of life?
Is it memories we hope we might find?
We search on steadily with sieve and knife,
as centuries slowly sift through our minds.
Yet we find no beauty in aging man:
wrinkles, balding head, the hesitant step.
Forgetting the youth that once was at hand
before battles of life, tears that were wept.
Beauty is wisdom verdant in aged minds.
Beauty a desk made from long-ago pines.
We See What We Want To See
White lines carelessly scribbled oblique
For those who believe, a crucifix unique
Amidst this domain, beauty fills empty space
Wings of an angel, profile of a face
A bold, immense mammoth, a fierce dinosaur
Their presence once solid, but now metaphors
A heart, though misshapen, its meaning quite clear
One’s lover must now be the omniscient seer
Mountains so broad, clustered together as one
Shift slightly; a thin crevice welcomes the sun
Light through the crevice emerges, then fades
As the mountains float on in the sky parade
While drifting and dancing, these shapes may transmute
New chance for imagination to take root
The massive, dark storm clouds set my visions free
For the beauty in life is what we choose to see…
June 4, 2021
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