A bit about me...and a poem

Et Eärello Endorenna utúlien
Sinome maruvan ar
Hildinyar tenn' Ambar-metta

Hello! This is another of Arnisse's profiles! This is the quiet, introspective, book-loving, writer. The free spirited, Lord of the Rings lover is hippielfchick; and the music-loving, slightly rebellious one is Arnisse. She will use this one to post her original story, started with NaNoWriMo but continued because she likes it. Kaelynn Cohen is the star of Arnisse's original novel, Not That Kind Of Girl. It will be posted in this journal, and updates will be sent via PM. Please read and review, no flaming please. She's a first time writer with no experience and thinks herself to be pretty bad, but what the heck...

Masks
Author Unknown

⿿Don⿿t be fooled by the face I wear, for I wear a thousand masks,
And none of them are me.
Don⿿t be fooled, for God⿿s sake, don⿿t be fooled.
I give you the impression that I⿿m secure, that confidence is my name
And coolness my game,
And that I need no one. But don⿿t believe me.
Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in aloneness, in fear.
That⿿s why I create a mask to hide behind, to shield me from the glance
That knows, but such a glance is precisely my salvation.
That is, if it⿿s followed by love.
It⿿s the only thing that can liberate me from my own self-built prison walls.
I⿿m afraid that deep down I⿿m nothing and that I⿿m just no good.
And that you will see this and reject me.
And so begins the parade of masks. I idly chatter to you,
I tell you everything that⿿s really nothing, and
Nothing of what⿿s everything, of what⿿s crying within me.
Please listen carefully and try to hear what I⿿m Not saying.
I⿿d really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and ME.
But you⿿ve got to help me. You⿿ve got to hold out your hand.
Each time you⿿re kind and gentle, and encouraging,
Each time you try to understand because you really care,
My heart begins to grow wings, very feeble wings, but wings.
With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding,
You alone con release me form my shallow world of uncertainty.
It will not be easy for you. The nearer you approach me,
The blinder I may strike back.
But I⿿m told that Love is stronger than strong walls,
And in this lies my hope, my only hope.
Please try to beat down these walls with firm hands,
But gentle hands, for a child is very sensitive.
Who am I, you may wonder,
I am every man you meet, and also every woman that you meet,
And I am YOU, also.⿿