Abstract
Reflective writing is somewhat like standing naked before the mirror. It is chilly, uncomfortable, a writer’s imperfections raw and exposed. Particularly, Gillie Bolton (2010) says, “through-the-mirror” (p.10) writing takes oneself past the silvered glass right into the roots of emotional thinking – an unfamiliar, perhaps even illogical, terrain. Such writing submitted to a professor, or a cohort, is subject to scrutiny and feedback, comments that may unwittingly jar, poke and provoke, or feel just a little too intimate. However, as Bolton further indicates, “We have full authority over our writing at every stage, including rereading to ourselves and possibly sharing with a confidential trusted reader” (2010, p. 47). After a discussion about ‘digging deeper’, I realized that any ‘holding back’, on my part, was not unconscious denial but was, rather, a conscious decision to maintain a private stance. This poem arose from that acknowledgment.
