Are you beautiful?
It depends how you perceive yourself.
See yourself
looking back at you.
Are you beautiful?
It depends how we ask ourselves,
as to whether there is any doubt.
The hesitant question giving room
for assessment,
the risk in arguing,
is that we fail to see how everyone beautiful
long ago ceased all disagreement.
And instead received the praises due
for being redeemed gifts of heaven.
Yes, are you beautiful?
Try lying down under a cloudless sky.
See yourself as a mirror reflecting
the blue, and the bright clear sun.
And next time you look in another’s face,
may the light you impart
give its own gracious glow,
that you each are seen truly
as subjects of heaven.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
May 2021
Living Tree Poetry 