The Food of Love

          My life for the past few days has been poetry. Reading poems, writing poems, and listening to poems. I happened to find a brilliant playlist of British actors (such as Tom Hiddleston, Richard Armitage, Matthew Macfadyen, and Benedict Cumberbatch) reading prose and poetry, which I've been slightly addicted to. I also wrote one more poem as well as a couple unrelated stanzas. Here's my complete poem:

Super Bowl Sunday
By: Me

It is Super Bowl Sunday.
We ate pizza and popcorn.
There were no wings
this year. No guests and
no laughter.
The screen was on and
two teams without names
played a sport that I cared nothing for.

My brother, on his iPod, took a couch.
My parents, playing cards together,
on different devices,
sat on the other.
I sat on the floor and wrote this poem.

The football teams played for us,
a family who didn't watch TV
together.


          I feel like that is one of my better poems. I also did a stanza using alliteration.

Sometimes I see the sky
in colors so sweet and shy.
Sometimes I smell the stars
So cold and so distant
and yet, so very, very close by.

          And one on assonance.

I was told, by one very old,
that to hold a love too long
would be for both, very wrong.
The love would grow cold.
It wouldn't last, if held too long.
Or so I was told, by one very old.

          I personally like my stanza on alliteration better than that on assonance. Well, actually, I much prefer my Super Bowl Sunday poem. That one actually felt real to me. And since I'm just assaulting you guys with poetry crap today, I'm also going to leave this video here for your enjoyment. (It's just an audio, so if you would like to read along with the poem, I've also left that here too. Regardless, press the play button. It's better with sound. Oh, and Tom Hiddleston is reading it.)


Desiderata (Max Ehrmann, 1927)

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.


"You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here." -Desiderata by Max Ehrmann