Poem Response: The Second One

 funny...but not

-Arianna Loshnowsky

it's funny how hello is always accompanied with goodbye
it's funny how good memories can start to make you cry
it's funny how forever never seems to last
it's funny how much you'd lose if you forgot about your past
it's funny how “friends” can just leave when you are down
it's funny how when you need someone they never are around
it's funny how people change and think they're so much better
it's funny how many lies are packed into one “love letter”
it's funny how one night can contain so much regret
it's funny how you can forgive but not forget
it's funny how ironic life turns out to be
but the funniest part of all, is none of that’s funny to me

(Found at: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/funny-but-not/ )

This poem made me sad. There’s some truth to it, most definitely… A good bit of truth! But… I don’t know, this just seems like something a woman would be screaming to her best friend after some man broke her heart as she threw away all his stuff. It wouldn’t rhyme in that situation, obviously, but the ideas in the stanzas would be the same ideas that she would end up raging about. The thing is, she wouldn’t stop at the raging… the next moment would be her losing steam, curling up on the floor, and crying. Hard. Because that’s what we do when we hurt—we get angry, and then we realize it’s more than anger. Sometimes it isn’t even really anger at all! We just hurt. And we don’t know what to do… And as I read the last line of this poem, I could almost see that moment where anger becomes tears... and to the floor she goes….

So.

Depressing.

And although this has nothing to do with that top paragraph, I figured I might as well throw in here that I really like the way the author rhymed the words. They aren’t obnoxious rhymes. They’re easy to read! And I like that. Sometimes reading rhyming poetry feels like an excersise. This one wasn’t that way, which, as depressing as it was, made it more enjoyable to read that it would have been if the rhymes were frustrating. So, there is a silver lining to this grey little cloud…

Poem Response Numero Uno

            Oh! Something I’ve forgotten to mention is that part of my homework is also to write responses to poems written by other people and post them for your reading pleasure. Hopefully. So, anyway, here is my first one! 

Tomorrow

-Mick Jackson

You

Told me

To worry

Not, tomorrow

Is another day,

A chance to start again.

I wish it was that simple.

You may forgive me with your words,

But the hurt in your eyes betrays you.

For me there cannot be a tomorrow.

(Found at: http://mjshorts.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/etheree-poems-trying-something-new/ )

            “The hurt in your eyes betrays you”… Isn’t that such a heartbreaking moment? When you realize that you really have hurt someone? And what’s worse is that the people we love most are usually the ones we hurt most. If we were offered a million dollars to say something that we know would give a loved one’s eyes that look of helpless pain, we wouldn’t accept it! And yet, there you stand, knowing that your words and actions have hurt them… and you’ll never be able to take any of it back. Yeah, time heals, and you can apologize as much as you want. They can forgive you, and you can continue having a full, wonderful relationship, but… none of that erases those painful moments that none of us want to think about.

            We hate to be the ones causing pain, don’t we? It’s so much more comfortable to be the victim. It’s easier to be the hurt one, (at least, it is until it comes time to forgive…) but it’s nicer to think that we were the ones hurt, we were the ones wronged… not that we’re the ones causing the hurt. Because, if we’re the ones causing hurt… we’re the bad guy! And no one likes the bad guy…

            Unfortunately though… sometimes, we are the bad guy. And as much as we don’t want to be, we have to be willing to admit it. We have to be willing to admit that we caused pain, and ask forgiveness for it.

            That’s hard to do. But, we have to be willing to do it…

            I liked this poem for actually… showing that side of a painful situation. Usually, we hear from the wounded soul, how they have to reach within themselves, or give it to God before they can forgive. But rarely do we hear from the side of the one who has to be forgiven. Both sides are very real, and, (in certain situations) both take an equal amount of courage to talk about. It takes courage to feel; especially to feel difficult things. It’s much easier to keep everything bottled up, and hold the world at arm’s length. But until you allow yourself to feel it, mentally go through it, and take whatever steps it takes to get over it, (forgive someone, or ask for forgiveness, or whatever else your situation may call for.) we won’t be able to move on.

            One of the neat things about being a Christian though is… we don’t have to hold on to it. We can move on—because even when we don’t feel strong enough, He is.

            He is so we can be.

"A Letter to My Love"

A Letter to My Love

-A Found Poem

I miss you.

You mean so much to me.

Going through this part of life,

With you not there,

Is going to be hard.

I’ll stumble where you held me up.

I’ll go on, but slower than if you were here.

You’re a part of who I am.

And you won’t be there.

But you will later,

And when you’re there again,

I’ll be better…

You won’t be gone.

-Melissa

            How often do we tell loved ones that we'll miss them? If we were given the opportunity to explain what that means, what would we say? Missing someone is really a strange concept. I was talking to a friend about it, and what they said seemed to explain it well. For the first time, I felt like I knew what it really meant- what it could mean... what it should mean- to miss someone. It's more than simply missing them. It's missing their words, their actions, their jokes, their ideas... it's missing that place in your heart that their presence once filled. It's missing their specific way of touching your life, whatever that way may be. In some way, they added to your life, and it’s missing that addition.
            And, especially with people very close to us, life does get harder when they leave. Challenges seem even harder to overcome, because they aren't there cheering you on, giving advice, or lending a hand to help. Sometimes it even seems hard to feel like yourself because... part of who you are is reacting to who they are! And suddenly they aren't there... and you don't quite know what to do.
            The whole idea is sort of beautiful to me. We have the ability to interact with one another in a way that... one day, maybe we will be missed. Our absence will be felt. Not that we want loved ones to experience that feeling of loss, but to be missed? To be missed means that your life has touched another's... and that's powerful…

            Our poetry assignment this week was to write a poem of our choice from the forms we were given last year, (in that beginner's poetry class that I mentioned before.) This conversation with my friend was fresh in my mind, so I asked if I could use it to write a Found Poem. (Real quick: a Found poem is a poem written from someone else's words. You don't change the order of their words but you are allowed to change the tenses of words (Like the word "go" can be changed to "going" or "gone") and you may add two words of your own. You can also ditch as many of their words as you wish! But, as previously stated, you can't change the order of their words at all. So, what you write from is what you've got to work with. It's really fun! And it takes forever. It’s also probably my favorite kind of poem to write! And now you know.) My friend said I could use what they had said, so… I started. As I wrote, it hit me that I could do more with this than simply write a poem about the concept of missing someone. I could give it a story. I still didn't have a title, and I realized that for a story, all I had to do was provide a title that told one. I named it, "A Letter to My Love", and decided that people could imagine for themselves who the two were, why they were separated, and all the rest of the twists and turns that gives any good love story an interesting effect.

            I hope you enjoyed this poem, and that somewhere inside you a little story was unfolding… or that it reminded you of someone special in your own life.  If the latter is the case, then… there’s nothing wrong with sitting quietly to let the memories take reality’s place for a moment…

Thanks for reading…

Well, Good Day to You!

Hello!
My name is Melissa, as I'm sure you... probably already know. But, in case you were unaware, you are now... not... unaware. It's neat how things work out like that, isn't it? One moment you can be completely oblivious to a reality and then the next, BAM! You know! And for the rest of your life, you know that fact that you were once unaware of. I love that about life... we can always be learning! It would absolutely stink if we were born knowing everything. But no, we get to live, and experience, and learn with each and every moment of our existence...
And that's part of the idea behind this blog. It's the chronicle of my experiences, and my learnings, my reality, said in a way that only poetry can interpret it.
You see, someone asked me what I thought poetry was, and I realized that to me, poetry is the expression of our own realities in the way that simple words alone could never fully grasp. (And yes, I did actually say that. I was a little surprised with myself! Because normally I would have expected something along the lines of, "Uhhh.... Poetry is... Writing… With words... In a pretty sounding way...Usually.... Unless someone can't rhyme well, because then it's just writing with words in an ugly sounding way." to come out of my mouth.)
That moment of defining poetry is where the name of this blog comes from. Because, in sharing my poetry, I will be sharing my view of this world… of… my world, and all the people, places, feelings, hopes and dreams that come along with it. I truly hope that, if you do take the time to read, you get something out of it. I hope that it blesses you, because... It certainly blesses me to be given the opportunity to write it.
This opportunity has been given to me through my homeschooling group. Oh yeah, by the way, I'm homeschooled! And I'm a senior this year! Which totally rocks!! But anyway, in my homeschooling group, I take an advanced poetry class, (Not because I'm amazing at poetry, but simply because I took the beginner's class last year) And the homework for that class is this blog and all the poems which will be posted on it.
So, in a nutshell, if you read this blog, you will be checking my homework! (So... the whole world will know whether I did it or not. Talk about accountability... )

All this to say, hello, and welcome to my blog! It's my goal to simply provide good reading, and to honor God with the words that I choose. If you have any suggestions about how I can better do one of, or both of those things, then I’d love to hear them.

And hey, thanks for taking the time to read this.

-Melissa