Golden Imperfections - Poem

Earlier this week, my teacher asked me to create a poem about "the perfections in our imperfections". Being that both of us were familiar with the Japanese tradition of kintsugi, (or golden joinery), I decided to follow that route and use this definition as inspiration while trying to create this poem.

"What is Kintsugi?" I hear you ask? Well...

It is a Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by mending the cracks, or broken areas with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum as a way of treating the breakage and repair as part of the objects history, rather than something to disguise.

In the same way, a person's imperfections are golden chapters, sentences and phrases, in the history that each and everyone of us, are writing.

I hope you find this poem enjoyable,

Yitzy Schweitzer

Golden Imperfections - Poem
Why must our eyes be drawn to the cracks,
To the broken insecurities, hidden painfully deep?
Why can't we bring our eyes to look at the gold,
The greatness, serenity, our inner beauty?

When the vessel has a crack,
When it breaks, when it is wounded,
Sometimes we cover it with gold,
Its imperfections are what makes it perfect.

When our vessel, our soul,
Is damaged, shattered and torn,
The golden opportunities we find in distress,
Brings our soul forward on to a healing dawn.

So, the vessel now is no longer cracked,
But, rather, as perfect as ever.
Our struggles don't degrade us,
But it is what helps us become better.