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Reasons for the Weekend
Published: 2006-03-30 07:58:45 +0000 UTC; Views: 5271; Favourites: 114; Downloads: 66
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Description
Because human nature zig-zagged in reversefrom wand-waving mornings to night,
plucking on harp-strings with bitten-down nails
and mud-trudging through kitchen floors,
Because we ignored the blue neon signs
that smiled Enter through the gates,
and monkeyed up the glass walls instead,
with the grace of a bullet-filled car,
Love grew a shadow, and splashed Friday with ink
when he dived from a springboard of leather and wood--
but the spectators gave him nil out of ten,
though Perfection had wrapped him in white.
Because human nature keeps sliding down driveways
without elbow guards or mothering smiles,
because we attempt to feel more than our skins can,
stuffing ourselves with reflections of stars--
Sunday grew taller, for Love re-emerged
and de-plugged the pool as he skipped up the side.
His tattered grey scarf soaked the last of the flood,
and he left it behind as he walked past the sky.
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Comments: 109
I think you won. Hehe!
(I'm still attempting to answer all the comment. This is nuts.)
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114! hah, I DID WIN.
~~pleased~~
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Dear Lord. It's amazing.
AMAZING.
Your meter is absolutely impeccable, I love that the syllable count changes and it still flows so well.
Absolutely wonderful, and all sorts of cloudy. I am going to enjoy reading more of your stuff.
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Wow, thank you! I don't usually write very good metrical stuff, so I'm glad this one flows nicely. Thanks for your comment!
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But of course. I have you watched, so I'll be excited to read anything else you post. 
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Wonderful imagery and concepts. =] This flows very nicely.
His tattered grey scarf soaked the last of the flood,
and he left it behind as he walked past the sky.
That line there is what had me hooked. <3 And the fourth stanza; but this is the one that really grabbed me by the hair and yanked. 
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Thank you very much. I like those lines, too. I'm glad you liked it
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I have no idea what this is trying to say, but it's a piece of brilliance to and read aloud.
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Well, you can definitely apply your own interpretations to it. Thanks for the comment; I'm glad you like the piece.
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Very good. I don't read much poetry (mostly because there are so few good ones), but this is awesome. The imagery is awesome; I wish I could come up with descriptive words like that. Wonderful work, really.
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Thank you very much - your comment means a lot to me. I'm glad you liked this piece, especially since you don't read much poetry.
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Staggeringly beautiful ... the kind of poetry I want to lock away forever, and look at when I'm feeling the most desperate and generally tragic. A heartbeat 
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Your comment made me smile. Thank you so much, and for the fave too. I'm glad the poem touched you.
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You're very welcome. Precious poetry can be hard to come by, so thank you!
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I feel compelled to read every poetry Daily Dev that I see, and I'm usually let down.
This, though, is a wonderful exception.
My only gripe is with the word "monkeyed"
but if it earnt a DD, who am I to criticize? (:
Good work, well worth the DD and my personal little golden star.
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Thank you very much for the comment and the fav. I really appreciate it!
What is your gripe with 'monkeyed'? What do you think doesn't work about it? Just because this piece got a DD, it doesn't mean I don't accept or appreciate constructive comments! I don't think any poem I write is ever truly finished to the point of no improvement.
I'm glad you liked the poem. Thank you!
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The word just seems out of place... It's one of those words with the exceedingly long names that I never listened to in english class, I guess it just seems too... Jungle-ish for the poem.
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Hm, I do see what you mean. I used 'monkeyed' because to me it conveys a sense of primitive mischievousness, a disregard for rules, which is the kind of verb I needed to describe the action. I think I put 'clambered' in my original first draft, but it felt too reluctant and slow.
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What a brilliant thing to find at 3 am. Absolutely beautiful, and breathtaking imagery. Completely deserving of the contest win and the DD. congrats.
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Thank you so much. I...I am in shock at the DD. Thanks for the comment!
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OMG. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG I FOUNDS IT.
so the other day I randomly decided to print out some poems to read, and ironically, forgot to put the author names on them.. I absolutely loved this one, but couldn't for my life remember who wrote it. 'cos you know, I'm brilliant like that ;D
The last line is 100% fantastic--imagerically, rhythmically, everythingically. I lovelovelove it and practically have it memorized, I've reread so many times.
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Thank you so much! This is one of my favourite pieces of mine, and very appropriate for this weekend, too. I'm so glad you like it!
Thank you for the love
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I'm sorry that i can't say much about this, I'm not too good with critique etc.
I hope that by my faving this, you will interpret the action as a positive comment that did not suck
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Thank you so much! 
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heh, you're welcome!
and i've just noticed that we both like writing things and taking pictures of them
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Heh, so we do!
Anyway, thanks for your comments
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*smashes through the glass wall, driving a bullet-filled car*
Yo!
I like the imagery in this one. Very deep, one of your better. Nice way of ending the last stanza; you really get the sense of closure across and the mental image really stands out. Nice work!
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Thank you very much! I'm glad you like it. I think it's one of my better pieces, too.
You'd better be paying for the repairs!
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*hands Arliddian a very suspicious bag of cash*
And now you must excuse me, for I must make my escape. The coppers are after me again.
*drives off in the bullet-filled car, firing his tommygun into the air*
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may He train and sharpen your gift, little prophetprincess.
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thank you so much - and may He wrap you in faith-blankets in your winters
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Thank you so much!
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OH MY FUCKING BAGELS, that was amazing.
seriously wonderful imagery.
like it touched hahaha i don't know what to say!
it's beautiful and heart lifting and all that snazzy feeling!
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Oh, thank you so much for the
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you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome you're welcome
it was lovely
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ahhhh.. .i just realized that this whole poem could be interpreted as a indirect summary of Jesus' life, written in such beautiful imagery.
Never ever stop writing. In fact, I'm going to read some more of your writing.
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That was beautiful.
I don't have anything else to say.
Because human nature keeps sliding down driveways
without elbow guards or mothering smiles,
because we attempt to feel more than our skins can,
stuffing ourselves with reflections of stars β
That there, my friend, is one of the most beautiful verses I have ever heard out of all of the poems that have been wedged up my eyelids. I am not lying. Such a beautiful way of depicting the human tendencies of stuffing ourselves with spontaneous emotion and explosive desires, that we just forget about everything and fall face down into the watery freedom of spontaneity (sp?) without any means of protecting ourselves... hmm.. did that make any sense at all?
Oh well....
I am still going to print out the last two verses, and tape it onto my wall, right above my bedside, and put "by ~arliddian" in big letters.
Wow.. "walking past the sky. "
Wow... "The grace of a bullet-filled car."
this is beautiful. there is just so much free-flowing, surrealistically spasmastic meaning, and heart-skippingly soulfulness in this piece. I think I understand why it is under the "spiritual" category.
You are very puddle-wonderfully vanilla-flavored on the inside.
what is your first name, anyways?
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Oh, thank you so much - your comment almost made me cry, but that's a good thing
I'm so glad you found so much in this piece. 
Thank you so very very much for reading this and for the
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you're very welcome!!!
Yay.. I'm chinese too. There are many poetic chinese people out there that i know.
what is yoru chinese name?
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My Chinese name is Mei-yan. It means 'beautiful swallow' - thus my dearest brother used to make jokes about gulping. But I love him anyway
Do you have a Chinese name? Can you speak Chinese? I can't, although I'm taking Chinese as a subject at school, haha.
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Wow.. I'm sorry I didn't reply this earlier. My comment box is exploding...
Grr.. and my devwatch.. gahh! There just isn't any duckin' time!
I don't even want to think about it. I'm just going to reply them all when the summer begins to gobble me down.
It's crazy. I have to do like four paintings before the end of the year, and I haven't even started on any of them, and that includes a logo-painting for my Youth Group at church.. yess.
And.. well, I'm not sure if you heard, but I am having my first actual romantic relationship. It's kind of over the internet, but it is worth it, it is worth every tapastried strand of it. He's one of the most amazing guys I've ever met. *ashellessmind Ha.
And.. I also wanted to congratulate you on your win for "reasons for the Weekend." (I know this is very late) It's fantastic. And I still have the "human nature" verse pushpinned to my wall, and your username underneath it. It makes me smile, it does.
Oh yeah.. and I do have a Chinese name. My last name is "Chen." It's the word with the er duo pang on the left and the "dong" in "dong xi" on the right. Yay! Did that make sense...?
Anyways... my full chinese name is "Chen Xue Zi." The "xue" means snow. I was born on a snowy day on January 25th, 1992 7:30 at night, and the sky was pooping down big fat globs of whitish snow. yess.
I can speak chinese. I've taken chinese class on saturdays, out side of school for 6 years, so I can write it too. It's one of the hardest languages in the world, because I tink you need to memorize like 1000 characters just to be fluent enough to write decently. It takes so much insane time.
I also editted "Fruitbowl Filled wiht Flickering Faith" the christian essay I wrote a long time ago. And I changed it -- I added a verse there, that was inspired by an amaziingly passionate speech delivered by a guy at my youthgroup.
I thought I'd tell you it, because everytime I read that verse, it's as if everything comes back to me, and I'm just so filled with passion and faith all over again. God has the power to grab a writer's pen and speak through it.
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He rose. He lives. And he stays. For Love. For a purpose, a promise, and for all of his Creation.
And if you forget the promise, the purpose, the poetry, the joy, the faith, the eloquence of the Love of Jesus Christ, then how can you ever fulfill your duty of passing it on? What you have to offer for this world β is so amazing, so significant, so powerful, that the Son of God died for this to happen. There is a chasm of human desire that divides birth and death. And there is a Choice -- a harrowing, fluorescent, painful, harsh, reality-reeled choice. To get caught in that faithless canyon, and die from the fall β OR β to accept and live for the mastery of faith and love and purpose, and make it to the other side.
Because, my friends -- there is something so much greater going on right now, and you, in your mere existence, can contribute a sprinkle of god-glazed stars to deliver something so much more than what this fleshy world could ever, ever offer. And slipped inside of your soul, the moment you were born β was one life β one chance to take this one choice.
And thatβs what makes all the difference.
Just peer deep inside. You donβt need any batteries to open your eyes, soul, spirit, and mind.
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I did hear (well, actually I deduced) about you and *ashellessmind - I'm glad you found that romance, even if it's over the net
Thank you so much for the congratulations - I'm still somewhat surprised at zebra's choice, but glad all the same. I'm also glad I make you smile
Yes you do make sense, and I think it's great that you are fluent in Chinese. I really wish I were better, because it's impossible to talk properly with my grandmother sometimes. We're going to Singapore and then China in the holidays, so hopefully I will improve much more!
My last thank you is for adding your edit to "Fruitbowl Filled with Flickering Faith" at the end of your comment. I can't tell you how much I needed it - I'm going through something of a rough patch, and my faith (although still somewhat solid) is shivering a little. To read this reminder of why I have a relationship with Jesus and what it means for my life and how I can react - and continue to react - to this knowledge was exactly what I needed. God is amazing, I know that - but every now and then I need reminders that prod my heart and get it beating loudly to the rhythm of Jesus again. Your comment was one of those reminders.
So thank you, Jessie. And I thank God for you, and for working through you. He touches so many people through you.
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You're very welcome. Anytime.
I think.. I wouldn't even be half of the Christian (I'm actually a liberal christian) that I am right now, if it were not for the endless encouragement and heart-spanking poetry by Heather. *queenhrosie
You read her puddle-wonderful works, right? If you don't, then there is nothing else that you should do. It is the most spiritually inspirational poetry ever.
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What do you want to be when you grow up?
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I do indeed. She certainly is an inspiration
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eee.. I always wanted to ask you this ..
What do you want to be when you grow up?
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Hm. Loaded question.
When I was little, I wanted to be a model. Then a singer. Then an author of children's novels.
In terms of occupation, I kind of want to do law.
But the best answer that I can give is: whatever God wants me to be (which sounds a bit like a cop-out, but really, what I want to be is God's). So no matter what I end up doing, I want to be doing it for Him.
What about you?
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