nothing can change who you are (audio poetry 2:55)

nothing can change who you are.

no absence of grace
no slap in the face
no words harshly spoken
nor promises broken

nothing can change who you are

who you are will not crumble ‘neath treachery or lies
the crux of your being, you must realize
is not what you’re given by fortune or fate
whether roses or thistles lay beyond yonder gate
no chance encounter with destiny’s sword
no bag of gold, no hollow reward
have the power to alter the limitless you
to tear down or apart the eternal and true.

you are a spark of holy fire
the anointed one, godchild of desire
pure essence unfolded
to not one beholden

nothing can change who you are

who you are is not who they said you must be
who you are is who you are when you are finally free
of notions and beliefs that were not of your making
yet were placed upon your sweet heart, tender-ripe for the taking,
when untethered spirit rises illumined
beyond a vast sea of encumbrance, illusion
 sets off,
taking with it the clang of confusion

and then you can be who you are.

how you spend your days is quite inconsequential
when you tally them up against all things reverential
can a bird or a fish choose to live as a tree?
can you be who you’re not and exist thus as thee?
many a road with cast-off masks is adorned
and alongside the litter new lives are reborn
from ashes and cinders, old cloaks shed and shorn

and all of us becoming who we are.