what is meant by 'self-reflection'

only when the wind stops and I feel
no forces at work upon my nerve endings -
when I forget my body's positioning
in space, the pressure on this limb
or that limb - when, like Plotinus,

I feel that my body is no longer mine
can I love it,
can I imagine and intellectualise
'body' at the same time - like
watching a woman as she sleeps
or thinking of a woman on the other side

of the world - but with our manifold
minds we need not go fishing
for New Age techniques or cubes
of sugary LSD - for we can put to bed
one voice or another at will -

we can put will to bed at any time
of the night or day - analyse
our behaviour as though it were
transposed onto film and that film
mailed to the farthest, darkest place on earth -

while unused the foibles of our character
are sleeping beauties
the skin of whom we caress, the pulse of
whom we coyly check, not impolitely,
to make sure they are still alive

because their stillness, like their silence,
is total.