Cannot Hide Myself From Me

I love…
…your tender heart and am happy to know you are letting it finally awaken. Far too long life circumstance caused you to hide your heart away in shadow while you kept your true feelings stuffed deeply down inside. I am proud of you.

“Myself” by the American ‘People’s Poet’ Edgar A. 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,
To look at 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 hide 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
What kind of person I really am;
I don’t want to dress myself in sham.
I want to go with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect
And in this struggle for fame and pelf (riches)
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to look at myself and know
That I am a bluster and empty show.
I cannot hide myself from me;
I can see what others can never see;
I know what others can never know,
I cannot fool myself, and so
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.