Remember that big long essay I had to do that was totally stressing me out? I got an A on it!
Also, I got the address for my apartment next year
In my Writing 122 class, we read this poem by Andrea Gibson that was written in November of 2011 and I just wanted to share it with you all because I think it's amazing.
~~~~~
The nutritionist said I should eat root vegetables.
Said if I could get down thirteen turnips a day
I would be grounded, rooted.
Said my head would not keep flying away
to where the darkness lives.
The psychic told me my heart carries too much weight.
Said for twenty dollars she’d tell me what to do.
I handed her the twenty. She said, “Stop worrying, darling.
You will find a good man soon.”
The first psycho therapist told me to spend
three hours each day
sitting in a dark closet
with my eyes closed and ears plugged.
I tried it once but couldn’t stop thinking
about how gay it was to be sitting in the closet.
The yogi told me to stretch everything but the truth.
Said to focus on the out breath. Said everyone finds happiness
when they care more about what they give
than what they get.
The pharmacist said, “Lexapro, Lamicatl, Lithium, Xanax.”
The doctor said an anti-psychotic might help me
forget what the trauma said.
The trauma said, “Don’t write these poems.
Nobody wants to hear you cry
about the grief inside your bones.”
But my bones said, “Tyler Clementi jumped
from the George Washington Bridge
into the Hudson River convinced
he was entirely alone.”
My bones said, “Write the poems.”
~~~~~
For those of you who don't know who Tyler Clementi is:
"Tyler was gay, and had just begun sharing this part of himself with the people he was close to during the summer after his high school graduation. This was a difficult time for him, but he was brave and honest about who he was.
After graduating high school, Tyler attended Rutgers University where he was excited to learn, grow and have the freedom to live openly as a gay man. As an incoming freshman he began playing violin at the institution’s high level orchestra. Only a few weeks into his first semester, Tyler’s musical gifts earned him a seat in an orchestra comprised primarily of upperclassmen and graduate students.
At college Tyler became a victim of cyber-bullying. His privacy was invaded when his college roommate set up a webcam to spy on him. The roommate viewed him in an intimate act, and invited others to view this online. Tyler discovered what his abuser had done and that he was planning a second attempt. Viewing his roommate’s Twitter feed, Tyler learned he had widely become a topic of ridicule in his new social environment. He ended his life several days later by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. Tyler was eighteen years old."
This text is taken from The Tyler Clementi Foundation's website,
http://www.tylerclementi.org/
~~~~~
Are we really not above this yet? This didn't happen in the 60's or 70's - this happened in September of 2010. That's less than three years ago! Can we just be fine with people kissing whoever they want to kiss and loving whoever they want to love?
