Several years ago, I wrote, and presented, one of my authored works titled, "M A S K .” This was in response to a graduate course of study. The larger work, several pages of prose, spoke its calling…and so a distillation, a poetic dialogue of soul, rather than a lengthy discourse of academic merit beckoned to be expressed. Within each line presented here, there is a story, mine, yours, or someone you know, love, or care about. Within each line there is a feeling, a knowing, a petition, to be known to the M A S K, to be liberated from its pretense, to be free to be the TRUTH of SELF.
M A S K
Grant not power to these demons of dark
Hush hush their haunts erase their mark
Be free of judgments and reprisals cruel
Truth and Spirit of Self in light anew to rule
Addict me not to a false quieting of the pain I feel
Make the liberation from a shadowed self a beauty real
MASK not these agonies of the abiding soul
No longer allow deception to demand a toll
Pay not the price of life relegated to sorrow
Live the promise held within each tomorrow
Depression be not a donned cloak of despair
Hold the Faith yet borne of God's loving care
The gift of life and power of will in your story be told
Hail each breath, the cleansing, 'tis the alchemist's gold
See behind the MASK beyond the veil
See the denied pain that is yet to prevail
The masquerade and pretense held to conceal
The SELF that TRUTH alone is to reveal
Reveal, I hear this night command
Cloak not the quiver of shadow close at hand
Remove pretense and the MASK donned to conceal
The TRUTH, the deep knowing, this knowing real
Confront and resolve, the petition summons a call
Beyond all consideration, TRUTH to lay bear ALL
To the plea of this petition I to heed
And TRUTH, 'tis ever the rightful creed.
Rose Marie Raccioppi
Poet Laureate
Orangetown, New York
