Skin Again

By bell hooks

"The skin I’m in
is just a covering. It cannot tell my story.

The skin I’m in is just a covering.
If you want to know who I am
you have got to come inside
and open your heart way wide.

The skin I’m in looks good to me.
It will let you know one small way to trace my identity.
But then again
the skin I’m in will always be just a covering.
It cannot tell my story.
If you want to know who I am you have got to come inside.
Be with me inside the
me of me,
all made up
of stories present, past, future
some true to life
and others all
fun and fantasy,
all the way I imagine me.
You can find all about me–
coming close and letting go
of who you might think
I am
before you
come inside
and let me
be real
and you
become
real to me.
All real then. In that place where
skin again is one small way to see me
but not real enough
to be all
the me of me or the you of you.
For we are all inside
made up of real history,
real dreams,
and the
stuff of all
we hope for
when we
can be
all real
together
on the
inside."

~ bell hooks is a poet, an essayist and an educator. This is the text of her children’s book, Skin Again.
~via

This text says so much about where I am at in my journey right now. Being real. Getting to know myself. Letting others in to see the real me.