Self-Portrait

Perhaps you've read my stories, poetry

And thought you saw me. You are wrong. No song

I've written ever mirrored one degree

With any part of me. There's nothing wrong

With thinking that you caught a glimpse if you

Have read my mind's mere makings over time--

But everything I've written, it is true,

Is true, but not of me, except in rhyme. 

But have I loved? Oh, yes, I've loved--my wife,

My children, parents, friends. And beauty called

To me and set me free and freed my words.

And I have sung of conflict and of strife

And reconciled and called out what enthralled

My heart and mind like diamond hummingbirds.