Love is a materialistic thing
It never bandaged my bruises
or put my drawings up on the fridge
It never really chased bubbles down the street
or stroked my hair
Love was living in a mansion with 14 bedrooms
and 16 bathrooms
Love was being escorted to first class seats with
leather tapestry
Love was always fulfilling but not warm not
gentle
Like an archetecurized house that never really
felt like home despite the delicate marble floors
and engraved ceilings
One where your voice bounces off the walls
back and forth
Love was always a materialistic thing
So when you gave me a flower pen
that you found in the 3rd grade to offer to an undiscovered friendship
I didn't know how to feel I felt warm like wooden floors, like the first day
of snow and a coloring book
I felt like the discovery of Lamprocapnos and
seeing a dog on the street
And when your fingers curled around the
strands of my hair and they turned damp
I wondered what you were doing
And when you let me eat the rest of your ice
cream
And when you’d let me sleep despite the
months apart
And when you’d wash my clothes
And when you’d do my homework
I wondered what the hell you were doing
Something dazzlingly peculiar that had my
eyes lighting up with adoration
Pondering how something so small made me
feel so big, so full
So you can understand when I said love
is a materialistic thing
I didn’t know love could be that too
Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.:
This poem is about the idea of love and how it's more than just material. It's about someone who feels a sense of emptiness with their life as it lacks the warm feeling experienced through thoughtful, sentimental love. While materialistic love didn't feel wrong, it felt somewhat empty. The poem follows the journey of learning that love is more than just items, and is gestures, care, and kindness too. The poem ends off with a line that contradicts the first statement, as now the individual has learned that love is more than material.
Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.:
Growing up, my parents satisfied their parenting by treating me with things that money could buy. I was never particularly close to them, and never really felt that sense of warmth. Of course, being given things was the only sense of love I knew. When I met my first friend, she was so thoughtful, and her actions were very meaningful to me, resulting in confusion. How could small actions make me feel so much more warmth? The same warmth some of my favourite things do, like seeing dogs on the street. A very specific line is "I felt warm like wooden floors," which refers to the warmth I felt when going to my grandparents house that literally hard warm wooden floors, but was also the only time I felt warmth through love too. The poem finishes off with the understanding that love was more than just material items. The final line contradicts the first, as the beginning starts off as a very sure statement, while the end is after learning love is more than what you can be physically given.
Why did you choose to write this poem?:
I choose to write this poem because I very much value the lesson of learning the real warmth of genuine love. It's an important lesson to me, and I appreciate my best friend for unconsciously teaching me that lesson.
Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?
Sometimes speaking the thoughts you want to write helps turning them into a beautiful piece of poetry.