"Myself"

On our drive out to Garden World on Saturday afternoon last week 

I saw this Strelitzia

with the afternoon sun shining through the leaves.

I enjoyed the moment!

Myself

by Edgar Guest

I have to live with myself, and so,

I want to be fit for myself to know;

I want to be able as days go by,

Always to look myself straight in the eye;

I don't want to stand with the setting sun

And hate myself for the things I've done.

I don't want to keep on a closet shelf

A lot of secrets about myself,

And fool myself as I come and go

Into thinking that nobody else will know

The kind of man I really am;

I don't want to dress myself up in sham.

I want to deserve all men's respect;

But here in this struggle for fame and pelf (money),

I want to be able to like myself.

I don't want to think as I come and go

That I'm for bluster and bluff and empty show.

I never can hide myself from me,

I see what others may never see,

I know what others may never know,

I never can fool myself -- and so,

Whatever happens, I want to be

Self-respecting and conscience free.

  

I came across this poem in the mid 1960's.

I have tried over the years in between to live up to this.

I continue to make progress in my own estimation.