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.


kheart SILVER said...
on Jan. 28 2010 at 4:01 pm
kheart SILVER, Union Grove, Wisconsin
9 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Every second is countless. Every minute is different. When you came around." -kheart

Beautiful and amazing! Please check out my poems and rate and post comments! Thanks and Great Job!

on Jan. 28 2010 at 2:36 pm
AprilMeurer BRONZE, Seneca, South Carolina
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
Amazingly beautiful. I feel inspired.

itsk8 BRONZE said...
on Jan. 13 2010 at 5:43 am
itsk8 BRONZE, Oradell, New Jersey
2 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." --Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

completely beautiful. i'm going to think about this the whole day. i love it i love it i love it

on Dec. 15 2009 at 8:35 pm
sasssgirrrl22 PLATINUM, Pearl River, New York
27 articles 0 photos 266 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Giving up is not a part of my vocabulary.&quot;<br /> &quot;Don&#039;t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.&quot;<br /> &quot;Truth be told I miss ya, truth be told I&#039;m lying.&quot;

completely amazing;)

on Dec. 15 2009 at 4:31 pm
The_Girl_Next_Door PLATINUM, Elkins, Arkansas
32 articles 1 photo 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
~*The mind has but a thousand eyes, and the heart is left with one...Yet the light of a whole life dies the moment love is done.*~

Hey. You've definately got talent. I love the emotion you put behind it. I wouldn't change much about it. I hope you keep your talent with you wherever you go. It'sperfect. Keep it up!

Angel4u SILVER said...
on Dec. 15 2009 at 10:37 am
Angel4u SILVER, Woodbridge, Virginia
9 articles 2 photos 7 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Cowards Die Many Times Before Their Death ; But The Valiants Never Taste of Death but Once&quot;.<br /> &quot;One&#039;s Heart Can Be Broken,but One&#039;s Faith Can Recover&quot;.<br /> &quot;Well Done Is Better Than Well Said&quot;.

Very emotional...I really like it !.....

Keep on writing .....great...

on Dec. 5 2009 at 12:42 pm
chrisbriones GOLD, Anaheim, California
11 articles 0 photos 83 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;I believe nothing can be justly and completely explained by words.&quot;

selfless, yearning, giving, wanting, craving, undisputed-- love.

I digress in adherence to your art.

on Nov. 23 2009 at 7:33 pm
heart_on_my_sleeve BRONZE, Clearwater, Florida
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Well-behaved women rarely make history.&quot;

This is a beautifully written poem. Stunning, stunning, stunning! Keep writing!

on Nov. 23 2009 at 12:20 pm
one word.... AMAZING =)

Ms.me_2 BRONZE said...
on Nov. 19 2009 at 5:58 pm
Ms.me_2 BRONZE, Lake Mary, Florida
4 articles 0 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;A womans heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man must seek him first to find her&quot;

I am at a loss for words...well one word comes to mind and that word is astoundig. The way it flowed and the vocabulary used...this really was astounding.

ccxisleet GOLD said...
on Nov. 10 2009 at 10:08 am
ccxisleet GOLD, Big Lake, Minnesota
15 articles 0 photos 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;To be one&#039;s self, is to be truly honest, truly loyal, and truly great.&quot;

Beautiful flow and word choice nice work, please leave comments on some of my work it would be greatly appreciated=]

on Nov. 5 2009 at 2:55 pm
AbbotRabbit GOLD, Abolana, District Of Columbia
11 articles 0 photos 1028 comments

Favorite Quote:
This poem has great flow and insight.<br /> I really enjoyed it.<br /> Lovely poem darling =]<br /> -Please check out the works that I have posted on here it would be highly appreciated and I think you would greatly enjoy them, Thankk youz-<br /> XxIll tell you Im an orphan after you meet myy familyXx

This poem has great flow and insight.

I really enjoyed it.

Lovely poem darling =]

-Please check out the works that I have posted on here it would be highly appreciated and I think you would greatly enjoy them, Thankk youz-

XxThe Whole Time You Were Talking I Didnt Hear A Single Word You Said B/C Th3 Whole Time You Were Talking I Was Picturing You DeadXx

on Nov. 5 2009 at 9:57 am
Still.Searching SILVER, Griswold, Connecticut
9 articles 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Follow Your Bliss&quot; Joseph Campbell

amazing piece its beautiful and well-written!

check out some of my poetry please!

on Nov. 1 2009 at 11:12 pm
Crimson_Silence BRONZE, San Diego, California
2 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Always be 10% smarter then the thing your trying to use&quot;-- My Dad

I forgot where I was for a moment after reading this, it's so delicately nostalgic; It's beautiful.

on Oct. 9 2009 at 8:22 pm
maddog6000 SILVER, Chicago, Illinois
6 articles 8 photos 26 comments
I am at loss for words.

Look up the word "astonishing" in a thesaurus or at thesaurus.com. Those are all the words I use to describe this.

Ruthey GOLD said...
on Oct. 9 2009 at 3:41 pm
Ruthey GOLD, West Midlands, Other
16 articles 0 photos 19 comments
hey!

loved this. absolutely. 100%. best thing ive ever read on here.

you must have spent ages on this, its so delicate and beautiful. its excellently seamless, there's not one bad spot in it!!

dont worry when people tell you its too confusing and they dont know what it means, i get that all the time, i just remember, "a poem should not mean, but be"

:)

good luck with your writing x

on Oct. 9 2009 at 10:52 am
Aro_To_The_Heart PLATINUM, Mandeville, Louisiana
47 articles 7 photos 49 comments

Favorite Quote:
Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than hands?<br /> <br /> -Ernest Gaines.

Great work. Such poetic genius. Keep on fellow writer, keep on. Can't waqit to read more.

on Sep. 16 2009 at 7:07 am
wordweaver96 PLATINUM, Winchester, Kentucky
37 articles 2 photos 254 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot; It is not our abilities but our choices that show who we truly are. &quot;<br /> Albus Dumbledore<br /> <br /> <br /> See, we really DON&#039;T have anything to fear but fear itself!

this is very good. i'd say more, but everyone else has used up all the good comments i can think of!

kfratus BRONZE said...
on Aug. 24 2009 at 1:15 am
kfratus BRONZE, Lowell, Massachusetts
2 articles 1 photo 5 comments
Very well-written, and has good flow!

on Aug. 21 2009 at 11:07 pm
krysling PLATINUM, Naples, Florida
30 articles 4 photos 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
I have found that when a person gets involed with cloak and dagger business, they usually end up deep in the cloak, without the dagger and out a business.

beautiful. unspeakab;y amazing. very well written.