Classic Poem

I remember the sensation I felt as I, the farmer's seed, dropt in the earth,
I remember myself as the ship that brought the grain back against the gale,
I remember what it meant to the acorn as it climbed to the oak, and how I threw myself in humble wish back upon the mercy of the earth again.
A casual word of anger makes me remember my own loose tongue
When the murderer is hung I remember the murders I have committed.
In the thief I remember my thieving, in the glutton my fatness.
The girl who prowled in shadows of streets for prey—O, I remember her as my haunting prostitution.
In the judge I remember my crime, in the jury I remember my temptation, in the counsel I remember that I too served cruelty for devil's pay
When I write my pretty phrases I remember my ugly life.
It is a fine coat I wear but what is that which I wear under the coat?
You were tried for all my offenses, and who knows but the real prison is my freedom and the real freedom vour barred cell?
I remember myself in the fragments of myself everywhere reflected:
Life everywhere greets me as the friendly rememberer.
Did I fear to see myself where I truly am and as I am truly shaped,
Did I fear to face the reminders of myself in abhorrent forms established,
Then had remembrance annulled the law of life.