Poetry Response 3- To Myself by W.S. Merwin

Usually I avoid typing the entire poem on these responses, but this one is just so short and spectacular!

To Myself
Even when I forget you
I go on looking for you
I believe I would know you
I keep remembering you
sometimes long ago but then
other times I am sure you
were here a moment before
and the air is still alive
around where you and I
think then I can recognize
you who are always the same
who pretend to be time but
you are not time and who speak
in the words but you are not
what they say you who are not
lost when I do not find you
-W.S. Merwin

I think I really enjoyed this poem; it's centered around the idea of the 'facade.' We all naturally mask who we are, sometimes until we cannot really remember what we really are. "We pretent to be time but you are not time;" we try and fit in where we need to, for a little while. When changing environments, our facades change as well. Humans are chameleons of personality. Depending on the situation, we change our shape, color, texture, or tone. I think humans develop into our facades, it is a learned trait. As children our individuality makes us content, but the day we enter into a public setting, we learn to warp that individuality, or we are expected to do so at least. The more we age, the more our true identity fades. Even after my 17 years, I honestly am not sure what I am if someone were to remove the pressures of society and expectations. Yet it is ironic that as we loose our identities by choice, we then spend years looking for it again. So many young adults seek to find themselves in careers and family life. I have friends who are so confused to "who they are" they try everything to find something that fits as their identity: "Even as I forget you I go on looking for you." Our entire lives we are searching for what we had to begin with. Once we loose our individuality and 'me-ness' I think we can only ever see glimpses of it from then on. In it's entirety, it is gone forever. I love when the author says, "and the air is so alive;" I think we all feel that a little bit. We become so tired of pretending, it's almost as if our facade is suffocating us; yet it has become us, therefor we will never escape it.