compassion

“I still ask for two glasses” , on Free Verse Revolution

/ Andrada Costoiu / 5 Comments

I started the journey of seriously writing not so long ago, but I know I had it in me for a long time. In middle school I had literature professor that I will never forget. He never gave high marks and he will always get upset when we made grammatical mistakes. I was his favorite student. Back then, I did not understand why. I was so young and just a rebellious kid, in a communist country that did not encourage creativity and free thinking. At times, I got punished for voicing my mind. One a teacher put me in front of the blackboard and asked me to fill it with a communist slogan. I took the chalk and I wrote what he asked me. I had to write that slogan 53 times, while the whole class was watching. I was in 8th grade. But the literature teacher rewarded me with high marks, because he appreciated my writing, not infested with communist thinking and such.

This is just a parenthesis, to introduce a blog that was so gracious to feature one of my poems, a poem that you have seen here before and that is also part of my new poetry book. The reason I brought this story up is because the theme for this month for Free Verse Revolution is “After Life”. The first thing that comes in mind when we think about After Life is…..what happens after we die. But, there are so many different After Lives, aren’t they? One is the example above: my life after escaping communism. I have a novel coming up, it is written but I am knocking on agents and publishing houses’ doors. Another kind of After Life is you, me, us, after a significant relationship has ended. My poem is about that.

You can read it at Free Verse Revolution if you click here. If you are a poet, I encourage you to submit some of your poetry to this blog, as I think it is a wonderful way of sharing our work.

I still ask for two glasses

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: Jean Beaufort, “Refreshing Glasses Of Red Wine”, Public Domain.

I planned to forget, 
But when you truly love someone,
It never leaves you.

I hoped that the rains would wash me into a river,
So I will learn to flow like water,
Shapeless, formless,
Until I’ll reach a shore
Where memories cannot travel.

It has been months since it happened,
We fought for our hearts,
But the distance swallowed us whole,
And spit us out onto different paths.

And so here I sit,
near the piano,
still asking for two glasses
For the ghosts of you and I.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

© Andrada Costoiu and a-passion4life.com, 2020- . 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

My new poetry book “Love poems: insights into the complicated mystery of love” is available on Amazon. You can get it here. Please write a review if you get around it. I would really appreciate it.

Sudden Oaks’ Death

/ Andrada Costoiu / 8 Comments

by Andrada Costoiu

Photo: “Hilltop Oak Tree”, by Ken Kistler

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.

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

Photo: “Helping Hands”, Irene Marie Dorey

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. 

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.