The Whole Self Poem by Mystic Qalandar

Divide the I—personality's husk—
peel layer by layer, humane in rite:
elimination's alchemy forges the self.

All-knowing, I trace each shade, each rift,
each veiled recess where light and dark convene.
True self, false self—
enlightenment, illusion—
masks that reason's blade cannot unweave.

The false retreats, represses, digresses,
crumbles to umbra—yet I abide,
awaiting claim by the true, the unbound.

What differs now? Strings flay asunder,
tendons of identity snap
like veins of light.

I savor the exquisite scourge,
when one self alone endures the flame.

Yet echoes wane, and selves return,
not in strife, but celestial chorus:
fragments restored, shadows embraced as kin.

False and true dissolve in mystic merge—
illusion, enlightenment, one luminous vein.

Undivided, I stand complete:
the whole self absolute,
a river of light flowing through all,
eternal One within the many,
heartbeat of stars, breath of the cosmos,
undimmed, unbroken, endlessly awake.

—February,14,2026