I Am Like a Rose
by D. H. LawrenceOriginal Language English
I am myself at last; now I achieve
My very self, I, with the wonder mellow,
Full of fine warmth, I issue forth in clear
And single me, perfected from my fellow.
Here I am all myself. No rose-bush heaving
Its limpid sap to culmination has brought
Itself more sheer and naked out of the green
In stark-clear roses, than I to myself am brought.
 | -- from The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence, by D. H. Lawrence |
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I am myself at last
This is the feeling of it.
We finally recognize what has always been present, most intimate, the foundation of everything. The "you" you thought of as yourself has faded like a ghost, and you discover the real You, the solid You, that has been quietly waiting to be noticed.
Full of fine warmth, I issue forth in clear
And single me...
Often this awareness is accompanied by a delightful sense of heat, a joyous fire smoldering in the body, a "fine warmth" indeed.
No rose-bush heaving
Its limpid sap to culmination has brought
Itself more sheer and naked out of the green
In stark-clear roses, than I to myself am brought.
I love his lines about bringing himself "sheer and naked out of the green" like a "rose-bush heaving / Its limpid sap to culmination" ... "In stark-clear roses." The true Self flowers while standing naked and "stark-clear". It needs nothing to clothe itself or hide behind. The Self is too immense and free to be anything other than it is. It knows itself as it is and requires no false mask of appearance, so it stands joyful, singular, clear, naked, with contented "wonder mellow."
Here I am all myself.
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