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Beyond The Laughter - A Poem For The Gay YouthLol, I'm no poet but after reading member Brent Hartinger's life story on his website, and relating to my own deep personal issues and struggle with my own homosexuality that I've gone through during those rough, teen years (and still currently today) I was inspired to make this non-rhyming, short, simple poem for gay teenagers and young adults everywhere entitled "Beyond The Laughter":
Beyond The Laughter (by Aaron Green)
Beyond The Laughter Beyond The Pain There’s Hope… Beyond the feeling of embarrassment Beyond the humiliation of being yourself in public There’s Hope… Beyond the fake, civilized behavior, & public smiles of “acceptance & support” for who you are whenever you’re around There’s Hope… Beyond the real, uncivilized, mean, nasty, & cruel backtalk that goes on whenever you’re not around, or the negative, insensitive, harsh opinions that’s on everyone’s minds around you that they wouldn’t dare say to your face because of who you are There’s Hope… Beyond the fake “accepting” smiles & small snickers that hold in laughter whenever you’re around (or with your partner in public), and then the bursting of those smiles into huge laughter around their buddies that haunts you just for being who you are There’s Hope… Beyond your tears, paranoia, shame, and deep emotional torment & pain There’s Hope… Beyond an entire world blinded by their ignorance & hatred for who you are There’s Hope… This hope that I’m talking about is the hope that all young gay men hold in their hearts, keeping them stable, & making them feel like it’s all worthwhile Our cloud with a silver lining and rainbow at the top Our light at the end of our dark life tunnel is… The hope that someday we’ll be free of all this stress, burden, & pain that society, our family, and our “friends” put upon us growing up by the time that we become fully independent adults on our own The hope that someday we do find those real & genuine accepting new family members and friends out there in the world with open and loving arms who truly do support & love us unconditionally for who we are The hope that someday we do find that one true love, our soulmates, our life partners, that truly do make this life worth living The hope that someday we do find what’s truly precious the most in this cold, cruel, hateful, harsh, judgmental, and alienating world: Happiness… And the hope that someday through our efforts, contributions, & hard work of fighting against the negative stereotypes that society sees us as, and putting more positive images of gay, role model, characters in the media for young teens to look up to in the present, that the future generations of young gay/lesbian/bi/and transgendered adults can live in a world where they have a voice that matters in our society, where they can be open about who they are & who they love, where they can have true acceptance and respect for who they are, and where they can finally be equally seen as people and not as a joke There’s Hope… Beyond The Pain Beyond The Laughter Submitted by Aaron (6 points) (10 posts) on Mon, 2007-12-03 01:27. |
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Did you know the closet is a cave?
You may not think yourself much of a poet, and as an English major I see your poem has no poetic conventions or structure, aside from the constant use of anaphora. But you inspired me to write a poem, something that I've been trying to do for months with Yeatz, Coleridge and a few of my other favorites. I forgot that a poem has to be close to your heart to be a poem, and not just a set of clever ways to put words together and gain meta-textual meaning. So without further ado, here's what you inspired out of me:
Did you know the closet is a cave?
I watched a dull pantomime of my life
Watching shadows, buried inside of chains
Never even turning to see the light
Knowing my true self was only made of pain
So the shadows flickered and danced
Thin illusions holding me in a trance
Thinking I could stay here, simply watching
Through marriage, kids and a job, always lying
The problem was, there were noises
From the mouth of the closet/cave
They kept disturbing the shadows’ poses
I almost hoped that I could be saved
But it’s hard to break the chains and turn around
To see the shadows are but hollow sound
Then to scramble and claw the sheer cave walls
I could scrape my skin, and die from a fall
Someone had been down here, once before
But there was no light in that dark so deep
That the broken chain links littering the floor
Cast shadows so sharp they terrified me
Then one day I turned, one day I looked
And the shadows lost their million hooks
There was a hand, faint but there
To pull me out, into fresh clean air
Jacob, I loved your poem! It
Awesome Poem, Jacob
I wish I could write poety. Mine all come out sounding like 'Mary had a little lamb'.
Justin
Post it anyways! I mean, I