Self Portrait By Jasen Sousa
Self Portrait
I attempt to draw a portrait of myself without paint or a brush,
I have no skill with some tools, but I am gifted when I grasp a pen full of ink.
I make sure to capture every detail, I try not to rush,
a poem, more effective than a painting, imagine how I look, see how I think.
I sketch, then color, line by line,
leaving behind the shadowy figure which lives inside my mind.
The unfamiliar face covering my insane ideas,
the lookout that houses my telescope like eyes.
My lips, my goatee, my nose and my satellite antenna ears,
my dangerous image covering my heavenly disguise.
A voice the world has not yet heard,
forced to write down everything that occurred.
Working my way down this figure, I come across a treasure buried in my chest.
It contains jewels worth more than anything that could be purchased.
It is the instrument that beat on me to be the best,
its historic fights with sorrow underneath my skin has suddenly surfaced.
The epic battle of good verses evil, sin verses saint,
Lucifer against the Lord, on the ceiling of my belly sketched with paint.
Then there is my back, which carries the world and its weight.
Sometimes it hunches me over and it appears I might fall,
but I will not tip over and crumble, I will keep walking until I am able to stand up straight.
I choose to carry my grief, without it I wouldn’t have anything to hold on to at all.
Speaking of holding, I have to mention my hands
which molded life from meaningless strands.
Taken From
Selected Poems of Jasen Sousa
17-24
©
Comprised of works from:
Life, Weather (First Collection of Poems Written At Age 17) (Not In College)
A Thought and A Tear for Every Day of The Year: A Poetic Diary (Written Between ages 18-19) (Stint at Suffolk University)
Close Your Eyes and Dream With Me (Written During Early Twenties) (Bay State College)
Almost Forever (Written During Early Twenties) (Bay State College)
A Mosaic of My Mind (Written at Age 24) (Beginning Emerson College)
I attempt to draw a portrait of myself without paint or a brush,
I have no skill with some tools, but I am gifted when I grasp a pen full of ink.
I make sure to capture every detail, I try not to rush,
a poem, more effective than a painting, imagine how I look, see how I think.
I sketch, then color, line by line,
leaving behind the shadowy figure which lives inside my mind.
The unfamiliar face covering my insane ideas,
the lookout that houses my telescope like eyes.
My lips, my goatee, my nose and my satellite antenna ears,
my dangerous image covering my heavenly disguise.
A voice the world has not yet heard,
forced to write down everything that occurred.
Working my way down this figure, I come across a treasure buried in my chest.
It contains jewels worth more than anything that could be purchased.
It is the instrument that beat on me to be the best,
its historic fights with sorrow underneath my skin has suddenly surfaced.
The epic battle of good verses evil, sin verses saint,
Lucifer against the Lord, on the ceiling of my belly sketched with paint.
Then there is my back, which carries the world and its weight.
Sometimes it hunches me over and it appears I might fall,
but I will not tip over and crumble, I will keep walking until I am able to stand up straight.
I choose to carry my grief, without it I wouldn’t have anything to hold on to at all.
Speaking of holding, I have to mention my hands
which molded life from meaningless strands.
Taken From
Selected Poems of Jasen Sousa
17-24
©
Comprised of works from:
Life, Weather (First Collection of Poems Written At Age 17) (Not In College)
A Thought and A Tear for Every Day of The Year: A Poetic Diary (Written Between ages 18-19) (Stint at Suffolk University)
Close Your Eyes and Dream With Me (Written During Early Twenties) (Bay State College)
Almost Forever (Written During Early Twenties) (Bay State College)
A Mosaic of My Mind (Written at Age 24) (Beginning Emerson College)