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Open Poetry #43
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Alison
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since 2008-01-27
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Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!

0 posted 2008-12-08 02:07 AM


love (as i see it)


love doesn’t conquer squat
it doesn’t make us better people
it doesn’t pay the bills
or keep the job or clean the house

love doesn’t make us braver
it doesn’t give us more integrity
it doesn’t pave our way to heaven
or make us not look at others

love is not a “get out of jail free card”
it is not a permission slip
to justify sleeping around
love is simply a feeling that flows and ebbs
and leaves and returns and sometimes doesn’t
(come back, that is)

it’s not magic
it’s work between people
we are really just love farmers
propagating the seeds that are planted
tending our gardens and enjoying
the fruits of our labors

-

Alison

© Copyright 2008 Alison - All Rights Reserved
serenity blaze
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since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

1 posted 2008-12-08 03:18 AM


*smile*

Methinks you are ripe for some kinda love tsunami...you'll be making sand angels before 2010!

(Remember I said it here first!)


Roniece Dawson-Bruce
Member Ascendant
since 2000-01-29
Posts 5689
Sydney, Australia
2 posted 2008-12-08 05:10 AM


yes... I'm with our very beautiful serenity on this one!! love the line... "love farmers"!

Ali-girl, I think this is just beautiful!

love RDB x

Be kind at heart....for everyone you meet has their own battle to fight.........

Rick
Member Elite
since 2001-06-21
Posts 2903
Victoria, Australia
3 posted 2008-12-08 05:18 AM


Dear Alison, so many truths in your words here my friend, loved the read, thanks.

Rick

Dark Stranger
Member Patricius
since 2001-03-19
Posts 13631
West Coast
4 posted 2008-12-08 06:17 AM


Ali-san...what has any of this to do with tennis?  grin
moonbeam
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5 posted 2008-12-08 07:06 AM


Alison

Now you've quit trying to end rhyme you are writing some quite splendid stuff.  

I don't agree with the premise mind.  Imo true love is either there or it ain't - but even if it is, it ain't enough - it's the rest we have to work at .

M

Earth Angel
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since 2002-08-27
Posts 40215
Realms of Light
6 posted 2008-12-08 10:35 AM


Oh, my, dear Alison. 'Tis a bit of a jaded view on love ~ but a challenge well met.

Sending some love your way! lol
Linda

OwlSA
Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa
7 posted 2008-12-08 11:17 AM


As much as I love and respect Linda, I don't agree with her that your view on love is jaded at all.  I think it is very realistic and solid and I think that the love you would share with a man worthy of our Alison would be extremely real and oh boy! would it work (as long as he is good enough for you)- and yes, probably to everyone's surprise, I think it would be as real and as magical as the Aurora borealis that is so much part of you!

- Owl

Juju
Member Elite
since 2003-12-29
Posts 3429
In your dreams
8 posted 2008-12-08 11:32 AM


Tru Dat!!!!

Juju

-Juju

-"So you found a girl
Who thinks really deep thougts
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts " Silent all these Years, Tori Amos

Earth Angel
Member Empyrean
since 2002-08-27
Posts 40215
Realms of Light
9 posted 2008-12-08 11:45 AM


Alison, I whole-heartedly agree with our venerable wise owl. You are deserving of love of the highest order and may it out-shine the Northern Lights!

Love you!
Linda

OwlSA
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since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347
Durban, South Africa
10 posted 2008-12-08 11:57 AM


Smiles, Linda and Alison!

- Owl

steavenr
Member Elite
since 2003-11-17
Posts 4058

11 posted 2008-12-08 12:52 PM


"love farmers"...interesting thought
Honeybunch
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since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115
South Africa
12 posted 2008-12-08 01:53 PM


Alison - As much as I'm a supporter of "love" I do think your interpretation is right for these times.  There is, however, another place where love is so very much the opposite.  Don't ask me to prove it though if my word isn't enough.

All in all, a great write!  Enjoyed!

Helen

LindsayP
Member Elite
since 2007-07-28
Posts 3410
Australia, Victoria
13 posted 2008-12-08 07:24 PM



After reading your lovely poem I'm so glad I've been a farmer, (among other things) nearly all my life. Sending my love to you dear Alison.

Lindsay

Oklahoma Rose
Senior Member
since 2008-02-28
Posts 1586
Oklahoma USA
14 posted 2008-12-09 10:21 PM


Oh, how I understand this one. You and I seem to have the same view. Only, you were able to be it into words.
Freely_expressing
Member
since 2008-10-16
Posts 69
NSW, Australia
15 posted 2008-12-09 11:58 PM


Thanks for sharing!
Much appreciated, and well written. However, I have to concur with a few of the others in questioning your particular response to the theme...'jaded' seems a good description. Love can be so much more when it's shared fully and equally between two good people.
Ben

Alison
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Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!
16 posted 2008-12-10 01:11 AM


Thank you all - while I plan to come back and thank each of you individually, I am tired tonight.  I just got back from a rushed trip and it was exhausting.

I am not jaded about love - though I can understand where some could interpret it that way.  I also believe in "true" love.  I don't think that love is a bandaid that will magically make our troubles disappear.  I don't think that love will make up for our personal failings.  I think that sometimes we use the concept of love (or lack of) as a reason to be unhappy or as an excuse to hold ourselves back.

That, imo (to quote moonbeam) has nothing to do with love.  That may be what you read as jaded.  I see it as realistic.  

My message is that we make ourselves better people.  We determine if we are loveable or not.  If we don't love ourselves, we can't give love to others.

That's what this poem is all about (kinda like the hokey-pokey ~ let's just shake it and turn ourselves about).

xoxoxo
A

Freely_expressing
Member
since 2008-10-16
Posts 69
NSW, Australia
17 posted 2008-12-10 07:21 AM


I see the point you are attempting to make and appreciate it. There are still a few lines that seem somewhat pessimistic to me. But you are essentially correct, love can motivate, but it doesn't actually achieve what needs to be achieved, that still falls to us...My opinion would perhaps be closer to the concept of us being life farmers...we work hard to plow, sow etc in life and we will reap the rewards...i believe love is more like fruit from a tree that blossoms of it's own accord...maybe I'm just naive
Anyway, sorry to be so disagreeing. And thanks so much for that wonderfully written reflection of yours

Alison
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Lumpy oatmeal makes me crazy!
18 posted 2008-12-10 11:08 AM


Thank you for the conversation.  Actually, I don't think I am pessamistic at all - nor do I think that the poem is.  I think it is a poem that shows thoughts based on reality (perhaps only my reality, but reality none the less) and thoughts based on a message of hope and responsibility.

Also, you might want to go to the original challenge of this poem and read it.  The challenge was not to write a starry-eyed-love-is-grand style poem.
/pip/Forum7/HTML/000782.html

Thanks again for the comments.

Alison

nakdthoughts
Member Laureate
since 2000-10-29
Posts 19200
Between the Lines
19 posted 2008-12-11 06:42 AM


no matter how one interprets your poetry,  each is always a "good" and meaningful read...and I am and have been living many of the ideas you write about .

Love adds to, but cannot be the "be all nor end all" in life.


M

rad802
Member
since 2008-04-19
Posts 279
KY U.S.A.
20 posted 2008-12-11 07:34 AM


The cost in lives, and loves, and tears, and dollars.
The strategist, and hawks, and rouges, and scholars.
Ambition has made us a nation of debtors.
We can only hope the next war will be better.

We struggle for our first breath, and onward to our feet,
but really we are still only in our infancy.
From further down the block I can just make out
the echoing of footsteps from the alleyway infantry.

We are strong willed but we belong.
Scurrying to gather pieces of heaven.
We don't expect you to know this song.
Hurrying to capture hill number seven.

The past unfolds, and fades, and tears,, and crumbles.
The experts guess and blame, ignore, and fumble.
Our leaders made this slippery slope even wetter.
We can only hope the next war will be better.

We struggle for our first breath, and onward to our feet,
but really we are just learning to live in peace
As far back as our history I can still make out
the sound of war and death that hardly ever seems to cease.

We are strong willed but we belong.
As long as we can keep this planet together.
I don't expect our leaders to never be wrong.
But can't we come up with anything better?


To keep from bleeding, keep the leading
edge moving the other way... away

Rick Delmonico

rad802
Member
since 2008-04-19
Posts 279
KY U.S.A.
21 posted 2008-12-11 07:35 AM


The cost in lives, and loves, and tears, and dollars.
The strategist, and hawks, and rouges, and scholars.
Ambition has made us a nation of debtors.
We can only hope the next war will be better.

We struggle for our first breath, and onward to our feet,
but really we are still only in our infancy.
From further down the block I can just make out
the echoing of footsteps from the alleyway infantry.

We are strong willed but we belong.
Scurrying to gather pieces of heaven.
We don't expect you to know this song.
Hurrying to capture hill number seven.

The past unfolds, and fades, and tears,, and crumbles.
The experts guess and blame, ignore, and fumble.
Our leaders made this slippery slope even wetter.
We can only hope the next war will be better.

We struggle for our first breath, and onward to our feet,
but really we are just learning to live in peace
As far back as our history I can still make out
the sound of war and death that hardly ever seems to cease.

We are strong willed but we belong.
As long as we can keep this planet together.
I don't expect our leaders to never be wrong.
But can't we come up with anything better?


To keep from bleeding, keep the leading
edge moving the other way... away

Rick Delmonico

rad802
Member
since 2008-04-19
Posts 279
KY U.S.A.
22 posted 2008-12-11 07:38 AM


Opps... sorry about that.
I was hitting the wrong button.
And didn't understand the result.
Rick

2islander2
Member Ascendant
since 2008-03-12
Posts 6825
by the sea
23 posted 2008-12-11 12:50 PM


Hi Alison, this is great and this is magic, you say so much and with true words accurate things about love...

have a nice day

yann

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