TRIP TO ELTHAM PALACE POEM 6

Meeting new people from new cultures is a difficult thing for some, as they are so entrenched in their own societal ways, that they do not know how to interpret differing custom. My poem imagines arriving in the 30s as an adolescent who is accepted by the family. I have never done such a thing, but I have lived temporarily in different countries, with different languages. It is always exciting to me, as the sound of the language and the smell of the country match in my mind - it is a different feeling to be foreign or new and to be interpreted by others, who essentially agree.

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“There is a beauty in being surrounded by the foreign – seeing things from a new perspective, with new eyes” Marcel Proust

Reflections

Flat and dark my reflection stares back at me,

Two eyes staring back at me looking for an

Answer or repartee to please,

A hard glare stares back at me searching,

Grasped together, fixed on pleasantry,

Determination is made of stainless steel.

What do you see when you look at me?

A shaft of light across a face pale,

Or a feeling presented by a figure,

A fiction or a fact, a story or a person.

I see all of these when I look at you,

But I also recognise myself in you,

A reflection in your eyes which look with

Interest, not curiosity and knowing.

You see something in me I cannot,

But reflected in your view I see more,

I see no difference between us,

Until I see myself reflected in your gaze.

“For I do not exist: there exist but the thousands of mirrors that reflect me. With every acquaintance I make, the population of phantoms resembling me increases. Somewhere they live, somewhere they multiply. I alone do not exist.” Vladimir Nabokov

It is a funny thing, foreign travel, for I have had the feeling that the whole lot was laid out for me. The people in the street, the cobbles, the bridge, the market - all there for me to explore. Galleries call you a visitor and sometimes, when caught up in a painting or a statue, I feel like I am visiting. Here are these wonderful things that no one else is gawping at, as they walk past it everyday and have an emotional attachment to it, that is deeper than simply viewing. Visiting the sites of my own country is a little similar, as you take yourself out of the crowd and survey what you see, as if you were travelling for the first time. So this was an interesting poem for me to write.