The Creation of Personality

Contact with the outer world, such as insects caught in the midst

Of metamorphoses or pollywogs discovering their legs,

May lead to embarrassments, if you haven’t kept a proper list

Of all your own accomplishments hanging from some wooden pegs.

You ought also to consider creating inner worlds,

For instance, little bubbles of dream caught in the early dawn.

When you want to crawl away, before the raunchy worms

Lie down to copulate, and linger on the sunny lawn

Of your own childishness, or streaks of aspiration

Spewed across your gardens of rationality,

You cannot hide from consciousness, and shun

The stains with blushing disavowals.  So we

Engage with our own selves behind the public faces,

Furtively as toddlers try tying up their laces.