The Poetry

This is a poem I wrote back in May, and it is definitely my best poem so far. It’s the last one I wrote this year and I think my style has changed  a lot (for the better) from what it used to be in September.

Hoarding the sparkling things: Whispers of an answer

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In a life
there are moments when
you don’t understand
of what has just passed
when running down the water

With the chase of the gulls
over the curtains that fall
and wheel over sinking
forests in waves

Fleeting moment
hoarding the sparkling things
in the shape of eyes and broken melodies
You will hide
In the white shelled middens
Running the moon across the clouds
and sink into the sea
with your hair cast a glimmering
and sand falling from the sky

Between the dog-eared
pages of a story
I try to read the past
and the stars wheel overhead
and Venus blinks her tears

Fleeting moment
hoarding the sparkling things
in the shape of eyes and broken melodies
You will hide
In the white shelled middens
Running the moon across the clouds
and sink into the sea
with your hair cast a glimmering
and sand falling from the sky

Bitter in a sweet sweet way
I watch the eclipsed light in a strange strange way
as dew rolled down and landed on my face
I closed my eyes and dreamed of a better day
but when the sparkling things landed in my hands
they were hoarded and dulled by time

Fleeting moment
hoarding the sparkling things
in the shape of eyes and broken melodies
You will hide
In the white shelled middens
Running the moon across the clouds
and sink into the sea
with your hair cast a glimmering
and sand falling from the sky

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This is my second try at writing a poem to a title, and it is much more successful. It’s really hard to find meaning out a title when you don’t even really know what it’s about. I find this poem much more mature and flowing than frankly, all my other poems. Perhaps it’s the first poem where I actually had true inspiration for, instead of ending up wracking my brain for something to turn into a line of poetry. I really understand this one, because most of the lines are from moments during the adventure trip.

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The first stanza explains itself quite well. Sometimes people don’t understand what’s happening until later, when they look back on the event. Having a removed outlook can really change a perspective. The second stanza is describing where I was and how it was like when I was thinking about understanding the moment. I was on the beach when the sun was sinking into the sea.

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The third stanza is meant to be a refrain, since I want this poem to be a song. These lines can be split into four parts to be better understood.

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Fleeting moment
hoarding the sparkling things
in the shape of eyes and broken melodies

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You will hide
In the white shelled middens
Running the moon across the clouds

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and sink into the sea
with your hair cast a glimmering

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and sand falling from the sky

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The first part is very connected to the first stanza. Its describing how fast time is and how little time you have to collect all your good and bad moments. I not so sure now, but I think “in the shape of eyes” is referring to relationships with other people, since eyes are such intimate things in which a lot of emotions can be sensed from. “Broken melodies,” is probably referring to sad memories. It’s like a two sided coin –melodies are always beautiful, but the “broken” part is concerning the terrible sorrow and disjointedness of a broken melody.

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The second part is about hiding in my memories of the adventure trip. I wanted it to last forever, so I could figure out what I was feeling. I wanted to stay forever in the white shelled middens at night.

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The third part is about the day when we watched the sunset and I sat there, right on the edge of the water, with Katie, and Julie. We talked about when moments show themselves in their terrible beauty, that’s when you want to die. It’s not in your most awful stressful times, but during the moments when you feel like it would be good to die then, when it would be peaceful and unspoiled. The water was perfectly clear and calm and the sun had sunk beneath the waves. I could have just walked into the water and walked down into the depths of that unending, silvery mirror. It was the perfect twilight, and during those few minutes, the air would suddenly turn silvery like mercury and it would wash everything with its shimmering glow. The world would hold its breath, and then it would be over. The last line is a metaphor of the first three lines in this stanza. The sand is a symbol for time, like the sand in an hourglass. Time will keep on running and running, and the sand will keep on falling and falling.

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The forth stanza is me trying to figure out what the heck was going on during the adventure trip while I sat on the beach watching Venus glisten in the sky and drip her reflection onto the incoming tide.

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The sixth stanza is rather like a bridge. The rhythm changes into a longer, more melodious line as it describes the sparkling dreams I am trying to catch, but time has already dulled them before handing them off to me. It was there when I finally found the perfect way to bring in the title and describe it in a way that I understood.