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What do you think this poem means?

Altruism

By Molly Peacock

What if we got outside ourselves and there really was an outside out there, not just our insides turned inside out? What if there really were a you beyond me, not just the waves off my own fire, like those waves off the backyard grill you can see the next yard through, though not well—just enough to know that off to the right belongs to someone else, not you. What if, when we said I love you, there were a you to love as there is a yard beyond to walk past the grill and get to? To endure the endless walk through the self, knowing through a bond that has no basis (for ourselves are all we know) is altruism: not giving, but coming to know someone is there through the wavy vision of the self’s heat, love become a decision.

I need to perform it and would like to know the meaning

ALL INTERPRETATIONS WELCOME!!!

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Answer #1

I’m not sure what it means but I will think it over and ask my friends. when do you need to preform

Answer #2

The speaker in the poem wonders aloud what the world would be like if we “got outside ourselves,” which is part of what the word “altruism,” taking action that benefits someone other than oneself, means. To represent the idea of “getting outside ourselves,” the speaker talks about looking from one’s own back yard into the neighbor’s back yard and seeing the smoke emanating from the neighbor’s backyard grill. The smoke is a symbolic reminder of the presence of someone else in the world besides oneself. The speaker then takes the point to a less literal and more figurative level and talks about how important altruism is if one is going to have an ability to truly love someone else. In order to be able to make the “decision” to love, one must “endure the endless walk through self.” Walking through the neighbor’s yard to get to his grill, to see where the smoke is coming from, becomes a metaphor for taking the time to really get to know another person. Perhaps this is why the rhyme scheme at the end of the poem is tighter than it is at the beginning; the speaker is in better unity with his neighbor.

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