Photo courtesy of Jason McKim and is licensed under the Creative Commons

I can be cold as the bluest, hottest ice And hot as the bluest, fiercest fire. . .

I'm a false reflection of a conceptional misconception

Whatever your limited or infinite mind's desire

You listen to my loud, yet gentle vibration

You believe me fully with no hesitation . . .

You see me with all colors of the beautiful rainbow

Is that really all the colors? Will you ever know?

Only if you can let me go. . .

I'm young and younger, black and blacker

Smart and wise. A genius. A true catalytic cracker

Beautiful, and most beautiful - is there really such a thing?

Breath in the melody that I most wonderfully sing!

I can be red, yellow, or indigo blue

Although I'm real in essence, I'm never the truth,

I'm at your worst, completely false;

Incomplete at your best; a simple impulse.

I can be joyfully sorrowful and sorrowfully glee, too.

But, whatever I am, I'm always completely real to you.

Do you feel me! Do you get my point!

Do you smell my noise? Can you hear my funk!

Can you see my darkness? Can you touch my light!

Can you smell my vision? Can you taste my sight!

Can you smell the painful pleasure, Can you taste the agony of the estasy?

No matter what, I'm always YOUR reality;

I am in you and you are in me.

If you change your perspective. I'll change mine-- as your's reflective.

I am oh so evil, and yet so kind

The world would be nothingness if I were blind.

But, maybe not-how dare I say?

And now I lay me down to pray . . .

I pray that you free me every then and now

From your dear self, for this I vow . . .

Will free you from hypocrisies

And all the false analogies. . .

From judgements, prejudices, anger and hatred ...

These no longer exist, once I am emancipated.

My negation gives you insight, free and clear

Of a far away place that is yet so near

If you could release my blessed curse and damned grace

And move beyond object, time and space

For that brief moment in that sphere

You'll sense a unity so crystal clear

Even beyond your limited, infinite imagination

Who am I, I am simply . . .

YOUR PERCEPTION ----------By CordieB.

More thought on Perception . . . A note on perception is below. It is authored by Jason McKim, a University of Virginia School of Law student and professional photographer (The artist for this posting's photo). I thought I'd share this with you. . . What's your "perception" on my riddle and this young man's words . . . ?

On perception, by Jason McKim . . . . . .Our perceptions are not just sometimes incorrect, they are always incorrect. For example, we have no ability to see color more than 10 degrees away from the focal point of our eyes. That means that you can't see any color in your peripheral vision. "Wait!" you say, "I can see color in my peripheral vision! You must be wrong." "But," I reply, "I am not." See, what happens is that your brain makes its best guess and then presents that to you. For example, if you take an apple and spray-paint it black and put it in someone's peripheral vision, their eyes will identify that it is an apple and the brain will realize that apples are usually red, and the person will perceive that this object is the color red. If they look at it and look away, however, the brain remembers it as black and the person will perceive it as black. So was the apple ever red? Despite our perceptions, no. Our brain constantly alters our senses in ways even more fundamental than this. Our perceptions are constantly, inescapably different from our sensations. Even if we decide that there is no possibility for error in the eyes themselves, we still cannot trust our vision. And by what means your brain do this? It fits what information it does have into your knowledge of the past and makes an educated guess. This has many implications: If someone looks like a dork or a punk or a slut, you will have incorrect perceptions of them that confirm your assumptions. If you expect someone to react in one way and are given ambiguous signals, you will perceive the emotions that you expect. If you think that a class will be boring, you will experience it as boring. If you become consumed by fear of failure, there is no way that you will think you succeeded, no matter how successful you actually are. Stereotypes might be unavoidable. They are also fundamentally more powerful than you imagine them to be. So don't trust your eyes. Don't trust your ears. And above all, don't trust your thoughts. Jason McKim (then) College of William and Mary