The Love of This World | Teen Ink

The Love of This World MAG

By Madeleine Barnes BRONZE, Wexford, Pennsylvania
Madeleine Barnes BRONZE, Wexford, Pennsylvania
4 articles 0 photos 0 comments

All the good in me unlaced I pull what I own across the floor,
books devoured to the spine, impressions the knees of my jeans
have made of kneeling, my ghosts of ghosts, the saint who is namesake.

I lay it out. A turtle can lay one hundred
thirty-seven eggs in the hollows of trash-filled beaches
and pray her young into the foam

and I know how she judges her almost-gone
with the shell’s first clean fracture, and how much she holds
when she owns nothing and watches it race away.

I line it up for you, lay it down, armfuls, fistfuls,
incalculable catalogues of rinsed fingerprints
released, as they are back-breaking, as this convex shell

is enough, as the body becomes the loudest resonating
home where I deadlock roomfuls of possessions,
where my valuables belong so unbearably to me

that they are not mine. And because I want to float
I lay them down, the swatches of fabric, the memories of places
I swore I had owned so wholly I felt them through to the relics,

laid down, the hopes I hold for the ones I’d kill to own
who swim between combs of aimless currents,
of whom I am no owner, of what I am no mother

I lay them out for you. And as the sea holds
each embryo to the memory of one
original shell, I am unforgivably enamored

with the ownership of all.



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This article has 117 comments.


on Jan. 15 2011 at 5:29 pm
shelterisland GOLD, Montclair, New Jersey
14 articles 0 photos 175 comments

Favorite Quote:
-Biting's excellent. It's like kissing only there's a winner."-Doctor Who, The Tardis

amazing.

I love the end- "and as the see holds each embryo to the memory of one original shell, I am unforgivably enamored with the ownership of all."


on Jan. 11 2011 at 10:08 am
Kayleigh13 BRONZE, Asheville, North Carolina
2 articles 0 photos 2 comments
That was great!!  Keep writing!

KAT.CH GOLD said...
on Dec. 24 2010 at 10:51 am
KAT.CH GOLD, Chennai, Other
12 articles 1 photo 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
If you can respect others you should respect yourself too

It is sweet

wespired GOLD said...
on Dec. 24 2010 at 4:18 am
wespired GOLD, Circle Pines, Minnesota
10 articles 0 photos 28 comments

Favorite Quote:
"God has given me the ability, the rest is up to me, believe... believe... believe." -- Billy Mills (Ox Lake 2008)

I love it!

Evaine SILVER said...
on Dec. 12 2010 at 8:57 am
Evaine SILVER, Schulkill Haven, Pennsylvania
8 articles 0 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
live a freak, die a legend

woah! i really liked how -in your own way - really expressed your concerns for the earth and how we should deal with it.

on Dec. 2 2010 at 1:38 pm
CarveTheMoon PLATINUM, New City, New York
30 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
If music be the food of love play on!

This Is AMAZING!!! Plezzzzzz Keep Writing i beg of you i would love 2 see more of ur work i JustLOVVEEE this one!

Borii17 BRONZE said...
on Nov. 10 2010 at 10:15 pm
Borii17 BRONZE, Walpole, Massachusetts
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
when a heart cries, cries little pieces of love<br /> it means that later on, your heart <br /> will feel a new special love <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> by leslie castro

i just loveeee itttt 

on Nov. 10 2010 at 10:10 am
MeanPeopleDead SILVER, Rouseville, Pennsylvania
7 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;i yam what i yam and that&#039;s all that i yam&quot; -popeye, the sailor man<br /> &quot;it&#039;s better to burn out then to fade away&quot; -kurt cobain

this is awesome. yay for the turtles.

on Oct. 19 2010 at 9:49 pm
this is perhaps the most honest poem ive read. its expresses how we as humans have the responsibility to look after this earth and we r not dng a good job. i really like ur poem bc u r indirectly spreading that message in an eloquent way. keep writing :)

ChelseaSmith said...
on Oct. 19 2010 at 3:05 pm
ChelseaSmith, Levant, Maine
0 articles 0 photos 12 comments
People are ruining this. People are ruining this world. The love we all share is so thinly spread and I am about to just give up with this place. Im gonna build a plane and fly so far away. People amaze me with so much hatred I have seen in this life, I am ashamed to be called Human. .. Makes me wanna be called an Alien.

carter said...
on Oct. 3 2010 at 2:04 pm
i realy like this poem its amazing its perfect

dayday said...
on Sep. 5 2010 at 6:19 pm
its 2 much

on Jul. 26 2010 at 10:12 pm
choirchic101 SILVER, Norwalk, California
9 articles 0 photos 196 comments

Favorite Quote:
in order for God to use all of you you have to be completely broken

I honestly do not understand it but thats just me

Allya said...
on Apr. 26 2010 at 4:25 pm
This is beautiful. It doesn't seem like teen poetry, which can often be forced or rushed, it's melodic and perfect. This may be my favorite poem I've ever read.

on Apr. 4 2010 at 1:45 pm
realvampire BRONZE, Yukon, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;With Jacob there is a&hellip; conflict. A conflict about the friendship thing, I mean. Friendship doesn&rsquo;t always seem to be enough for Jake.&quot;<br /> Bella Swan, Eclipse, Chapter 1, p.14

well worded and i like how you used the turtles in it. One of my favorites

on Mar. 19 2010 at 3:06 am
SolvoAnimus BRONZE, Jamaica, New York
1 article 0 photos 29 comments
*t Amazing

on Mar. 19 2010 at 3:06 am
SolvoAnimus BRONZE, Jamaica, New York
1 article 0 photos 29 comments
it felt like i was cruising thru your mind...Jus

on Feb. 19 2010 at 2:43 pm
Ellie.M. PLATINUM, Santa Paula, California
47 articles 1 photo 133 comments
wow this is really good.! I have a lot of poems that are like this please check them out and tell me how u like them.! :)

on Feb. 9 2010 at 8:04 pm
abeatlesfan65 GOLD, Stillwater, Minnesota
19 articles 0 photos 55 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;My greatest trouble is getting the curtain up and down.&quot; - T.S. Eliot

upon this View-

a verse so perfect

aspire anew-

a thought to ressurect

what joy, oh joy!

depth of verse to disect

I offer this to you:

a plea to continue,

for you, Muses have wept,

sweet drops of purity;

might you my offer accept,

though,

I would think it none a rarity,

if, as I suspect,

past precedent correct,

your verse's great clarity

resides beyond your shadow's throw

PS: check out my work if you could?

greg9381 GOLD said...
on Feb. 1 2010 at 6:06 pm
greg9381 GOLD, Atlanta, Georgia
12 articles 1 photo 50 comments
absolutely amazing.