Michelle M. · Voices on the Inside: A Poetic Justice Self-Portrait Poetry and Photography Exhibit

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Michelle M.

Item

Michelle M.jpg

Title

Description

Regarded As . . .,

Fragmented stoicism binds me to the weight of resignation and placidity. It
measures me against the guise of impassivity; a firmly constructed cage of hiding the disappointment and anguish of my deficiency.

It is the reverie of solitude/avoidance. It is a tailor made caste system of
guilty/of exiled. Yet, like photomicrography when heat is applied, when
polarized, a sobering truth is revealed: the decade of time I have spent serving time.

The rapidity of the ageless aging/graying. Patiently attending to the webbing
gathering in the crow’s nest, surveying laugh lines that reveal a once lived life
of acute joy and now rapt sadness. Or the physical aches and angst; that this
structure /frame is coming undone.

A daily chore of unyielding to submissiveness; retracting from the
spurious/counterfeit. Arching but never overreaching for fear to ask for too
much would result in revealing weakness.

Meditating I sit in the quiet; calming my anxiousness and divining providence. I
am not aware of what the observer witnesses in these moments. Detached
apathy? I am unable to qualify their questions with answers, only that I have
resigned myself to this countenance of acceptance.

Creator

Written by Michelle M

Format

Self-Portrait Poem & Photograph

Collection

Citation

Written by Michelle M, “Michelle M.,” Voices on the Inside: A Poetic Justice Self-Portrait Poetry and Photography Exhibit, accessed September 30, 2026, https://library.csusm.edu/context-library-series/voicesontheinside/document/341.

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