Poetry

Love, not cancelled

/ Andrada Costoiu / 3 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

I feel my body slip out of dream,
The sun took the stage
And I open my eyes and blink to the ray of sunshine
That has landed on your chest.

I feel a cold breeze through the open window,
Our curtains flutter like butterfly wings in the wind,
I shiver a little
And move close to your body.

The grapevine that climbed outside our bedroom window,
Sends smells of grapes
I shall pick some,
For our breakfast.

This is a perfect moment,
Silent, simple, with warm feelings,
Right now, right here.
A perfect moment in an imperfect world.

We used to love watching the sky,
Wishing on airplanes like they were shooting stars
But now flights have been canceled…..
We used to go to festivals and movie premiers,
But now these have been cancelled…
The Boston Marathon, Eurovision,
All cancelled…

In some worlds
“Cancelled” looks like a baleful cloud,
Still, hung heavy,
But not in ours.

I smile at the sun,
Smell the grapes and touch your skin,
Our plans and happiness have not been canceled,
Love has not been canceled.

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© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019- . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

No place for bad

/ Andrada Costoiu / 9 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

The orchard asks:
“What flavor do you fancy?”
And with a quizzy smile I say
“I like the red skinned with white freckles,
I like the bright and shinny.”

She’s pointing me to where
I should right now endeavor,
To find the one I’d like
That would appease my hunger.

I rush now with big steps,
I jump over a puddle,
And then I stop because,
I’m facing a big muddle!!!

In front of me are lying,
Vast rows with all red apples,
Which one, which one to choose?
The one with rocking’ shape!?
The one that has more color?!
The one that’s bigger, or the one that’s smaller!?

My human digestive system
Has been through some hot tries,
I once bit from a bad one,
And ended up in cries!

My stomach’s still upset,
And I want no repeat,
I want the next one that I choose,
To be a good one, I want it to be sweet!

So poised and ready,
And still with quizzy grin,
I’m choosing now the next one,
I bring it to my chin!

“To bite or not to bite?”
That is the question!!!!
I bite…..and hope that this one,
would give me no indigestion!

Hello. I hope you’re smiling. This poem is not about apples, but it’s about relationships and about the struggle to find the one that is good for us. I hope you’re all lucky, and if you’re not, keep trying! The orchard has plenty of “apples”. Love to you all : ).

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© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019- . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Humanity

/ Andrada Costoiu / 3 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

The elephant and his baby
Have passed by,
Fresh, casual, cute.
Among trees, flowers and clouds,
She watched as the world was retaking its natural forms.

She was vulnerable and so was her world.

The plague has killed the ghost of separation,
The cages have fallen
Even as more cages were being built,
They were all connected into the web of life.


The impulse and the fate
Turned her into a bee,
She wanted to make sure that flowers kept going
And that so was the food for everyone around her.

She realized that others were doing the same,
The lions, the horses and all others,
Were doing their job, 
Protecting, pulling, healing.

Imperfect as they are,
They’re all in this together.
Things will get better
And when they do
They will each recount their stories of survival
Gathered by the fire.

I wrote this thinking about all people in the world, in a world where you could be anything,who are you in this vast universe? Leave a comment with a word that would best describe you.  Love and peace to you all.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Cheer you up #2: Charmin undercover

/ Andrada Costoiu / 6 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

At my desk,
I’m sneezing,
It’s probably from all the dust that has accumulated,
I haven’t been dusting,
I am busy and in a ruminative thought pattern,
Trying to make sense of the recent events.

The other day in the news,
Jackie Chan was fighting a New York gang member over a toilet paper roll.
“Shiny hiney” song interpreted by Charmin band,
Is #1 in topmusic charts.
It seems that today’s social order 
Revolves around who has the cleanest ass*hole.

I want to gain control of my thoughts,
And disengage from this toilet paper dystopia.
Different societies prioritize different things,
I heard that the tea aisles in London’s supermarkets are empty,
They must have their own culprit……
But here, after two weeks of search,
I am glad that they finally found ours.
His name is Charmin,
He and his gang have been behind the current events.

Now that he’s caught he has no booty smile,
Way to go Charmin,
You’ll always be the villain till the end of time!

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Sudden Oaks’ Death

/ Andrada Costoiu / 6 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

It was a warm summer night,
With blue skies and a gentle breeze brushing the grass.
Standing at the edge of the forest, the tree was quiet,
Scars on its bark were witnesses of times
That bent him lower and lower…..

Today he got word from inside his oak forest,
Live tweets were coming about older trees,
They were dying,
Their crowns were tumbling in green tresses
All the way to the ground.

He knew that the eternal cycle of the seasons is underway,
But this was not time, and it was not winter…..
Moving beetles have infested the soil,
A quarantine was in place,
But beetles still liked to sing….

He’s always been part of this uniquely beautiful wood,
He felt despair tingling his heels,
And bleeding symptoms on his trunk,
Rising straight into the grey sky,
He clenched on his roots,
He wanted to see another spring…

I hardly wanted to write one more thing about the current situation, but I have read few articles about the situation in Italy, especially in the areas of Bergamo and Lombardy, that have broken my heart. So many older people are dying. If you have the guts to read something really sad here is an article in NYTimes about it : https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/world/europe/italy-coronavirus-funerals.html

I wrote this in hope to spread more love for our elders. I saw in the news that they were urging millennials to respect distance, here is what they say: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-official-explains-millennials-key-stopping-spread/story?id=69638468

So please, if possible let’s stay home and also avoid contact with elders if you think you’ve been exposed to the virus. In Italy, the numbers have grown exponentially, partly because families there are so close; young and old live or spend time together. Thus, if a young asymptomatic has it, then it would not knowingly passing it to his elders.

Below is a statistic I have found, that is a live report of the spread situation around the world. You can find it here: live report on coronavirus.

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© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Cheer up

/ Andrada Costoiu / 10 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Home, considerate of the current situation,
Thinking about some evil Picasso cubism faces,
He might have been a visionary,
And seen the present scare,
Of people in the stores?

But we’re not in Syria, we don’t really know what it’s like….
I think there will be TP,
There will be food…..
So….
I’ve been watching the cooking channel,
I saw an ad for the “worst cook in the USA”
I am wondering how do they make their selection,
And why haven’t they called me?

My young son is head-over-heels on Bobby Flay,
He thinks his food looks so good!
I used to live up to the expectations through a lot of takeouts, 
But now I seriously have to improve my cooking skills!

Maybe if they organize an on-line cooking boot camp
I will better understand my culinary transgressions.
Last night I tried to make cheesecake in a blender,
I failed…
Then wondered..
‘How the heck did that happen?’”
I could operate an airplane
But I get into all kinds of shenanigans in my kitchen….

Today is another day,
Since all the fruits from Whole Foods were gone,
I am going to make some pasta.
I heard that breaking pasta in half is bad 
And that every time you do it an angel cries sadly,
So I wont break it, I’ll listen to the Italian nonnas. 

After I’m done I’m going to switch my chef hat 
To the homeschooling hat,
Today’s schedule, among other classes, includes….
Honors Vacuuming and AP laundry. 

To all o you out there…..
Enjoy your day
Have fun with new projects,
Or do the same old,
And stay healthy! 
Cheers!

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Encounter

/ Andrada Costoiu / 6 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

The coffee shop looks full,
Between being asleep and awake,
People are
Carrying their “good morning”
In lattes and warm coffee, 
Trailing behind their dreams’ ghosts.

She seats next to me,
And not smiling she says:
“Why does this keep happening to me?”
I look at her, thinking that maybe she had a hard time waking up,
Because this morning we all had to honor the change of clock,
For daylight savings.

She points her finger, poking me,
And I seat back!
I realized I meet her yesterday,
And two days before,
And all the time before……

She’s the one that does all that nagging about my purpose,
About my strengths, weaknesses, my desires.
Scarred by another overdose of counsel,
I want to leave…
But I can’t!
We’re entangled in the same body.

It’s me and myself,
Seating together for the morning coffee.
This morning she talks to me about my out-of-whack expectations,
And she tells me to stop labeling things in extremes,
All or nothing, success or failure. 

I smile, she’s right,
There is beauty is all kinds of imperfections
And in all the imperfect moments of our lives,
Like last night…..
When I was nothing but a clumsy oaf in the dance class.

Me and myself,
We struggle with our own thoughts,
But we listen to each other,
And it will always be this way.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Take me home

/ Andrada Costoiu / 19 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Today I sat next to an old man on a bench,
He was amusingly bedraggled,
As an anthropologist forever looking
For foreign species on Earth.

His eyebrows were huge,
Eerily covering his beady blue eyes,
I think his mind didn’t wander as much as mine,
Because when he saw me he starred!

He thought that I am some observant time-traveller from another place
And he felt obliged to educate me into the matters of his world.
He asked if I ever had muesli with sheep’s-milk yogurt,
And what do I think about the muscular men, 
Which were running by our bench in the park.

I didn’t want to skew his beliefs and his image of me 
So I told him that Earth is a funny place,
I didn’t try the muesli,
But I did shaved my legs 
And I did have a beach-blanket boozy night with a statuesque male. 

He smiled and asked if my world is furnished with mirrors,
I told him that yes,
And that they reflect who you really are inside.
He said: ”good, then make sure to laugh and smile every moment.”

I smiled and took a deep breath,
And that’s when I saw his Alzheimer “take me home” bracelet.
One life lesson says:
“Don’t always take yourself so seriously”
I’m glad I didn’t.
All that really matters in the end is to love and to be loved,
Somewhere, somebody was waiting for him……
And I will take him home.

I think that there are so many souls out there that cry for help and we just pass by. In a world full of distractions it is easy to do that. But maybe if we listen more, see more, that would save someone. 

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© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Adrift

/ Andrada Costoiu / 5 Comments

By Andrada Costoiu

Each day seems longer,
The sky and the water are joined,
In a perfect dance,
Water ripples are sending flashes of light,
Across everywhere…
I feel my spirit doing loops and pirouettes,
I watch the moving ocean
And feel its amazing underwater ballet. 

Drops of salt have dried my skin,
Maybe salt has already entered my blood stream,
And I’m already one with the ocean.

I’m hungry,
I dream of steaks,
But so did the killer whales 
That surrounded the boat few days ago
And they got nothing from me……

Go to sleep,
Just go to sleep…..
I’m drifting between reality and dream.

I hear the voice of a fellow sailor, 
“ I understand you,
there is nothing like the big blue
and the feeling of freedom.”

But then I hear the voice of my mother:
“Around the world! Why will you do it?
I will because I want to see, to learn,
I will because you raised me to have courage,
Because I want o follow the map on its edges.
I promise I will be back.

I hear the voice of my lover:
“Why will you leave?”
I’ll leave because I want to find myself,
I’ll leave because I want to shake off the familiar shackles, 
And come back to you brand new,
I will be back.

Adrift….
In my life I lost so many battles that I can remember,
But this will not be one,
I still have a little sail left.
After all,
The greatest gift bestowed upon us humans
Is our courage.
I will fight to survive,
I will fight for the ones I love,
I will fight to keep my promises.

Sometimes in our lives we all may feel adrift. It’s always a fight, but we have to have hope that either us or others will help us to find our way back.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Go Away Gnome

/ Andrada Costoiu / 8 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

He was alone, 
Lost among garden lamps
Scissors and plastic plants.

All of his friends were gone,
Left for new homes, they all had signs of
“Welcome” or “Garden maintained by gnomes”
or other peculiar signs that made them special.

His sign was “Go away”.
He understood that nobody liked him,
Because they were either making fun of his sign,
Or of his eyebrows that his maker has drawn too high.

Whatever they made him look like,
It was not who he really was.
Inside of him was quiet,
He was like all the others,
Wanting to see the sunshine,
Wanting to feel the rain.

Maybe somebody will pick him up tomorrow,
Maybe some angry person,
That wants to shoo away the neighborhood kids,
Or maybe someone that was like him,
Angry looking on the outside but gentle within.

He is still waiting…..for someone to need him,
For someone to understand. 

This is for all the different people, for the misunderstood, for the ones that are judged by stereotypes ….for the ones that feel that they have no place. It is also for the ones that need to break their mind free. Please think about the gnome in the real world……and let’s all make it better.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 . Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2019 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.