Ode to Cork.

The following is a poem that I wrote in my Creative Writing: Poetry class after being told to pick up a random inanimate object out of the variety of items placed on a table for us and write an ode to it. We were told that we only had ten minutes to write about whatever we chose, so...I picked up a cork from a wine bottle, and this is what I came up with.

You are all that remains of a night
that I hardly remember.
Pulled from a bottle of Old Vine Zinfandel,
you were the only thing standing between me
and a plethora of decisions that I
never would have made had you
chosen to put up a fight.
Flashes of light
loud music blaring from the speakers
Shaking the floors and walls around us,
dancing silhouettes skin to skin
in a room filled far beyond
typical levels of comfort.
Sweat dripping from the pores
of a good looking man I barely know,
Passion rising in each movement
Getting lost in the bass of a song
that is overplayed on the radio
but tonight it speaks to us
and our bodies move together
with the uninhibited confidence that can only
be tapped into after the night has fallen
into a drunken haze.
He whispers in my ear
as alcohol whispers to my conscience,
"just do it. you only live once."
and hours later,
I'll do the walk of shame
with a smile on my face,
the sun peeking up behind the trees
feet getting wet from the cold morning dew
and I'll arrive home
get into my own bed just to wake up and
try to piece together
the previous evening's events
and thanking you,
dear cork,
for being the beginning
of an out of control
but amazing
night.

You.

I want you.
I want you to fall in love with the sound of my silence
because in those moments when words are absent
is when I am attempting to wrap my mind around how
incredible I feel when I am around you.
In this same silence,
I am trying to find where in the blank space
my soul and yours meet
for longer than the time we find
each other's gaze and look away quickly enough
to wonder if the other had seen
the adoration seeping from the depths
of our beings.
Or maybe this silence is stemming from the reality that
our stories do not sync
for one of us has lived a life epitomized in the
statement of 'bad things happen to good people'
or a devastating series of unfortunate events,
while the other has experienced life with a silver spoon in tow.
I want to teach you what pain is,
but not in a way that requires you being hurt,
moreso in a way that teaches you how to love
and will make you more able to understand
that I need you, your friendship, your love,
as much as you need to find yourself
and the concept of sorrow,
love,
life,
and silence.
That though our lives may not be the same
your heart can complete mine's sentences
and your passionate and patient soul
can hold mine
and those lonely gazes can meet each other
and collide
erasing all things that put you out of my league
or me out of yours.
Wounded together,
hopeful together,
silent together,
but together
nonetheless.

Beauty.

It is said that beauty is in
the eye of the beholder
and here I am now
beholding the most beautiful
human being to have ever walked
upon this planet,
your flaws perfect
and your imperfections flawless.

I would kiss you from head to toe
just to remind you that every
square millimeter of your body
is the most beautiful thing that
I've ever seen.
And I would need the entire world's
population to help me count on
their fingers and toes to help me
even begin to attempt to number
all the reasons why you make me smile.

I never want to let a day go by
in which I do not remind you of
how stunning you are
because you don't believe you are beautiful
and think that I deserve something better than
what you have to give
but little do you know that
never have I felt more lucky than I do now
that you desire to let me hold your heart in my hands.

I could paint a portrait
of your face with the color of
my irises because I only
have eyes for you.
And I could sing you the most
beautiful love song
to have ever been composed
with the air stolen in the
moments that you've
taken my breath away.

There is even beauty in the
sorrow that you carry
around on your shoulders,
but it is sometimes more than you can handle
and I would take it all from you
just to be able to witness the moment
in which you can finally stand tall
and feel the sunlight on your face.
You don't know how to completely
love because you are afraid of
landing alone if you fall.
Let me catch you
sweep you up and erase
this fear you've built because
there has yet to be someone in your life
who can hold you as gently
and love you as strongly as you've always needed.
If I could give you the universe,
I would be giving you only a fraction
of what you deserve,
But I will give you pieces of my world
One by one
If it means I’ll get the privilege of
Seeing you smile
and the joy of knowing
that in this moment
You are just as much a part of me
as I am of you
and the world
is ours.

Maybe.

Maybe we can hold hands and watch the sun as it
sets over the horizon, blurring the lines between
sea and sun and clouds, a beautiful mixture
of blue, red, orange, and life.

And maybe we can explode the earth with
our passion, smiling more than anyone
ever has because we simply enjoy each other
and life as it currently is, pain, sadness, drama and all.

And maybe we can explore the city, from
the random walls plastered with graffiti to
the 24 hour food places around town that make less than
fantastic food, but it's perfect because of the company
and the time being the wee small hours of the morning,
and we all know that everything tastes better at 4:00 in the morning.

And maybe we'll never need drugs or alcohol
because we are already so high and drunk on
life, but also keep in mind that a shot or two or
maybe some magical, psychedelic trip never really hurt anyone.

And maybe we can take pictures of anything
and everything, like that dog over there or you
capturing me as I am trying to capture a perfect
photograph of something else, or maybe we'd simply take a photo
of me smiling with that sparkle in my eye as you
stick your tongue out the moment that the camera flashes.

And maybe we can be those meddling kids that
laugh for too long in movies and walk too slow on
crowded streets, because we are too distracted by
how incredibly beautiful the world is when
we're together.

And maybe, just maybe, for even a moment,
we can just...escape.

Back to Me & You.

Back to you
my heart stumbles
knowing that more likely than not
it will be handed back in a million
torn pieces
the moment it finally feels whole again
still it pushes on
closer to you
because there is not one person
that deserves to break it
more than you do
for never did it know
such beauty
existed
until you taught
me
how to love.

By: Leandra Stanley
September 30, 2009

____________________________________

Back to me
my hands tremble
knowing that I
don't know how to handle
your heart beat for
I don't mean for the hurt
that is bound to happen to occur
while i still feel
you push on to me
as I attempt to put the pieces back together
which is hard cause it's
like holding sand
yet still I fail
at loving easy
cause I allowed your beauty
which is existing with me
this very moment to teach me
how to love.

By: Noah James http://noahtheartist.blogspot.com/
December 10, 2009

Fall.

I stand here between you

And the edge of a cliff

Holding the beauty that is

Your heart

Out before me

With a loving grip

Showing you that it

Is safe with me

But if you desire me to

Return it, I can

Loosen my grasp

And allow you to

Hold both my heart and

Yours recklessly

As you tend to do.

Beneath this cliff that

You’ve pushed me closer

To is reality

One that I’ve refused to

Confront for as long as

Possible for it is

A long fall just to

Crash through broken promises that are

Softened with ‘I love you’s

And ‘my heart belongs to you’s

Being destroyed as you allow

Your body to belong to someone else

But what is even more

Frightening is the fact

That at the end of this fall

There aren’t even lies

Other women

Or betrayal to

Sugarcoat and ease

My landing.

There is nothing.

So I stand here before you

Tear stained and broken

Begging you for one

Last chance to prove to you

That I can be even more gentle

With your heart that I never broke

Just as I promised.

You look me in the eye and

Without any love or compassion

Tell me that I am still the girl

That holds your heart

Slowly walking toward me while

Extending your arms

and what little remains of my heart

jumps and beats vigorously

in my chest as I step toward you

hoping that there would be some

warmth in this empty embrace.

But then you whisper

‘but you are not the one’

And your extended arms

Push me over the edge

As you try to grab your heart

From my hands.

I continue to hold it close

As I plunge past ‘I love you’ lies

And ‘we’ll be together forever’s

And I somehow find a

Split second to place it gently

Between ‘will you marry me?’

And ‘it was just a drunk hook up,

She means nothing to me’

Hoping that it would be safe

For I would never allow something

So beautiful to collide with a

Black heap of nothingness

Where it could get lost

Or cold or dirty.

As it rests there

I continue my fall

Passing every memory of

How happy we were

And how sad we were

And most of all

How perfect I thought we were.

I plummet closer and closer to the end

My tears passing me as I fly by with

You flashing before my eyes

As I prepare myself for

The lonely drop into nowhere.

I hit the ground

Terrified of the loudness

of silence

And open my eyes to see

You in front of me

And a cliff behind me

As you tell me that everything is okay

And that I am safe

Leaving me wondering

If I am jumping off

Of this cliff on my own

By believing that you

Are any different

Than you were before

Or that this jump back into love

Will be any less painful

Than tiptoeing on the

Line between an embrace

And being pushed

And forced to fall all by myself

After you promised to protect me.

I inch closer to you

Wondering how your heart is back

In my hands

I run toward you knowing you

Will just shove me off again

But you pull me in

Hold me and kiss me

And tell me how glad you are

That we’re okay again,

Charming me just enough

To lower my guard

While you laugh a little

And push me over the edge again.

I thought I was prepared this time

But you poked holes

In my parachute

And peered over the edge

Shrugged and walk away

As you begin to flash before my eyes again

During this beautiful

Disgusting

Perfect

Devastating

Fall into nowhere

And everywhere.

I gave my every effort to

Take flight

And to love you hard enough

To make you pull me closer

Rather than push me over the edge.

For you told me that you had faith in

A perfect love

And that this perfection

Was in me.

And I had faith in you,

In us, 

In our love.

So I am stuck here

Falling

Hoping that this time

You’ll be there to catch me,

Because this is the eighth cliff

That you’ve pushed me off of

And I don’t know how well

I can continue to protect

You and your heart

For I am weak

And my reflexes are shaky

And I am not sure I will

Be able to open my eyes

If you aren’t there this time

To break my fall.

Song for you.

You are finally listening

So I am going to give you

Something worth hearing.

I am going to sing

loud, soft

crescendo, decrescendo,

staccato, legato

with feeling

and more emotion than you expected

or are ready to handle,

because no longer am I singing for you

I am singing to you

and hoping my words will

move past your ears

and be heard by your heart.

I am going to speak to you in song.

I will begin and you will smile at the

sweet sound of my voice

and giggle at the cliché romantic feeling of this moment

until you realize that every note that I sing

is being poured directly from my

heart to yours,

and your goofy smile turns into a feeling

that turns your cheeks rosy and

gives you butterflies in your stomach,

the kind of fluttering feeling

that makes you realize that

I am nothing like what you are used to

but somehow everything you've been

looking for.

So the song I was to perform for you

becomes a song that I am giving to you

and with the

loud, soft,

crescendo, decrescendo,

staccato, legato,

four minute musical moment

in which the song is my soul,

I will surprise you

and steal your heart.