One Doesn't (1989)

One doesn’t have to be good-looking
To feel beautiful;
It is enough to be loved and be
Surrounded by all things wonderful.
Life is more than mere feelings
Whether of pride or insecurity
A realisation and experience
Of all beauty that Nature can give
Is Expressed
And worth more than appearances
Which can deceive.
Beauty, Love, Life still requires
One, even the very least –
To Appreciate.

Therein is all that Matters.


Frankfurt 1989


When I re-read these musings, which to edit and re-write is to lose the crisp juvenile sensibility of that period in my own life, I realise how immature my outlook then was. I blame it now, mostly for the lack of the benefit of growing up with strong paternal affirmation, which would have made any boy confident and whole early in his adulthood, and thus prepared for relationships that would be able to give. Instead, people who are seeking wholeness and expect or belive that relationships with bred that in them are often deceived by this heresy, and then to be very idealistic, painfully sensitive and often languish in melancholy. They are easily devoured by the idea of beauty, too often seduced by the prospect that wholeness in personhood lies in being appreciated. It may be more true to say that young boys become good men when they have been affirmed by their Fathers.