Firstly, I finally completely beat Kirby's Epic Yarn (100% completion... w00t) and I have to say that it is quite fantastic. I have fallen in love with the soundtrack and spent a large amount of time trying to find it to put on my iPod yesterday.
Secondly, I just saw Unstoppable and was incredibly impressed. It was by no stretch of the imagination the best movie this year but it was nothing short of intense, entertaining, and refreshing - the last of those three descriptors merely because I don't think I've seen a well-done, well-acted, and well-directed film with a plot as simple as "runaway train with tons of deadly chemicals and gasoline needs to be stopped by Denzel Washington and Chris Pine" in a long long time. At the risk of sounding like I should be tossed into a retirement home I'm going to point out that most films nowadays have so much cgi or over-the-top nonsense it's almost more exciting and unique when a legitimately good action film comes along without either of the two.
Finally, not much else is new, I've picked up a couple other new games and seen a few other movies but I'll save that for a later post (possibly tomorrow or the start of the week) since this one is called "Poetry Portfolio."
All right, now as for the brief overview - the following collection of poems were all written by me at various times in the past year or two (except for the last one - which is fairly old but I still really like it). Most, if not all, were written for classes though I do occasionally enjoy the rhythm and rhyme of poetry. There's something about dissonance, assonance, alliteration and all of the other rhythmic tools that is just fun to toy around with. So without further ado - please enjoy and let me know what you think in the comment box below (which poem is your favorite? do you have any of your own you'd like to share? etc.).
The Recompense of Patience
The great olive couch pulls me in like quicksand.
I’m slowly sinking down into it, feeling alone.
You gently tug me back out with your soft caring hand.
Oh how just in the past year, our attraction has grown.
I cannot help but let my mind meander back toward that day,
When you were right here and your hand was in mine.
How I wish, dream, and plead that you were not so far away.
That I could once again see your vivacious smile shine.
Patience may be a virtue but it is also a brutal blight,
The only cure is the memories we already do hold.
And the chance of opening up my heavy door one night,
To see you standing out there, anxiously in the cold.
I would hold you so tight with a fervent tear swelling up in my eye,
I’ll know the waiting was worth it by the sound of your content sigh.
The Kind Bumblebee
Upon the flourishing verdant background of summer,
Flowers open their magenta petals to the sky.
They are children laughing in the sprinklers,
Taking in the sun’s nurturing yellow droplets.
A bumblebee gently descends.
He is not an intrusion,
He wears a soft fur coat,
Of amber and charcoal.
He dances about on the flowers’ freckles,
They open wider to giggle as he tickles.
He enjoys his job and then flies off homebound.
Leaving a glow on the flowers’ bright faces.
Another Foreign Dwelling
Entering through the front door,
My parents shield me from what is to come.
I am sixteen now but still afraid and my mind is swimming
At the sight and sound of this foreign abode.
Scattered belongings crowd the area,
Like the scattered thoughts pressing
upon the inside of my skull.
The current residents speak
with an unaccustomed accent, to my parents.
I feel the distance from home and my mind is treading water.
It has only been a year since the last time.
The hotel room we’ll go back to is not home.
Home is gone for a long while now.
I see the television, the basketball net outside,
These objects are unfamiliar to me.
I am misplaced and uncomfortable and my mind is sinking.
The caws of birds, the buzz of cars,
The whines and whirrs within the house.
Are abstruse cacophony to my ears.
After I have seen each room,
I wilt beneath the shadow of the future.
I am to live in this new house and my mind is drowning.
Sanctuary is found in the familiar.
Sitting in the car I try to take in breath,
The essential effervescence of oxygen eludes me.
The Quiet Calm of Canines
I awake to another day,
The morning sun winks at me through my blinds.
I yawn and wink back,
Rubbing the sleep carefully from my eyes,
Then I listen.
My ears are embraced,
with the hush of deep inhalation,
My great molasses dog sleeps soundly at my feet.
Her dreams break through the silence,
like the trailing of airplanes far above.
Downstairs there begins a gentle clacking.
It isn’t alarming, for it is well expected.
My small silvery dog skips across the kitchen floor.
Her tiny diamond-hard nails,
Clicking and clacking as she goes.
The calming quiet of my canines forces me back into slumber.
Death to Eros
Eros commanded us with a powerful spell;
It is one that we eventually succumbed to.
Forcing our formally calloused hearts to swell,
It was the rapture of love that we once knew.
We were in blissful retreat at last,
Love was everything that we needed.
Until the day you suddenly past,
And I sunk down, sadly defeated.
What a malicious yarn Eros did carefully bind,
To snatch you from my caring grasp with a grin.
Forlorn, another like you I simply will not find,
And so I vow vengeance for his villainous sin.
Yes, one day soon, Eros will fall to his knee,
And I will be there to ignore his last plea.
All Fun and Games
When you were little, your mother would say:
“You’ll hurt your eyes sitting so close to the TV.”
But you disregarded her every warning,
Desperate to make it to the next level,
Of Super Mario Brothers 3.
Older, but somehow not much wiser,
You still ignore the heeding of those in authority.
Convulsions, disorientation, and altered vision,
Are just some of the admonitions
You overlooked in the booklet.
Perhaps 1-in-4000 are odds you will take,
As you ignore the following five simple rules:
Sit or stand the most distance away that you can.
Only play games on the smallest television.
Remember to never mix grogginess with gaming.
Only play games in a well illuminated room.
And of course, take short breaks every hour.
Maybe this time you will listen and be warned,
You will not reason away or fake ignorance,
But I would not find myself overly surprised.
If you have skimmed through this too,
With your desperately thrill-seeking eyes.
Origins of an Anxiety Disorder
I steal one last silent breath before I exit the car.
The anxiety forces my eyes to the cool autumn ground.
In the cheerful cacophony of the foreign schoolyard,
My lonesome and unsteady steps are all but drowned.
I gulp one last coarse breath before I start the school year,
Then force my hopes high, though my head is floating.
The other students discover I’m not from around here.
I become the victim of merciless taunting and goading.
I gasp one last deep breath before I leave that place.
The panic strikes me hard and crushes my chest.
My lungs disobey me as tears trickle down my face.
In my own body, I feel like an unwelcome guest.
I pant one last heavy breath before I complete the trail.
The tightness in my chest is left on the path behind.
Even when I look to the future I can calmly exhale.
I am once more the master of my own fragile mind.
The night breathes cool air unto my face,
And my eyes gaze deeply out into space.
A soft, warm voice calls over the crickets' song,
My gaze is now distracted as she shuffles along.
Her warmth fills the air as she sits down next to me,
Not another word is spoken, there's simply no need.
She gazes up to the stars, her face shows a warm smile.
The troubles of life seem to vanish, if only for but a while.
I notice across the soft green grass her hand does slide,
I build up the courage, then my own hand I do guide,
On to her's with a smile and a warm feeling deep inside.
Her stare moves down from the stars over to my eyes.
For more than a moment the crickets' hold still,
the silence is as perfect as her, my heart is does fill.
As she leans close to me, and I, close to her,
The light of the moon becomes but a blur.
~Ben Gentry
LOL @ fun and games. Origins is probably the one I liked best, really like the reccuring intro phrase and the imagery it adds; plus the different verbs you used for breathing create a progression of sounds that fits well with the narrative.
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