Parts of You, Parts of Me

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<button id="start-button">Begin the experience.</button>

<<type 40ms>>This is not a poem.<</type>> <<timed 3s>><<type 50ms>>This is a letter without a subject, title or header.<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 8s>><<type 42ms>>[[Read about love and abuse.->Love and Abuse]]<</type>> <</timed>>

<<type 80ms>>This is not a poem. This is a reflection, dedicated to love.<</type>> <<type 50ms>>My understanding of love was a miseducation<</type>><<audio "molove" volume 0.3 play>><<timed 10s>><<type 40ms>>—that’s a hill I’ll die on.<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 6s>><<type 70ms>>Because of you, I understand my family’s picture of love was taken with a faulty Nikon.<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 12s>><<type 60ms>>[[Read about a miseducation of love.->Miseducation of Love]]<</type>><</timed>>

<<type 40ms>>This is not a poem.<</type>> <<timed 5s>><<type 60ms>>This is parts of me, and parts of you.<</type>><</timed>> <<type 40ms>>The parts of you ring like bells of love, to which you create shelter through plates full of ingredients like care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment and trust.<</type>> <<timed 14s>><<type 60ms>>[[Explore the ingredients of love.->Ingredients of Love]]<</type>><</timed>>

<<audio "antithetical" play>> <<type 42ms>>bell hooks states that love and abuse cannot coexist. By definition the two are antithetical to nurturance and care. This was something my chosen-mother, Crystal, had instilled unto me early on in the dynamic of our relationship.<</type>> <<timed 16s>><<type 30ms>>Many of us—myself included, come from dysfunctional environments. Within these situations we are taught to believe that emotional, verbal, and/or physical abuse/neglect are part of love and the process of being loved. bell hooks says (Paraphrased):<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 18s>><<type 28ms>>For most people, it is too hurtful and too threatening to our sense of safety to embrace a definition of love that would no longer enable us to be 'loved' within our family, friendships and relationships. We find the need to cling to a twisted-version of love that makes abuse acceptable or at least makes us downplay it [abuse] to a point where it was 'not that bad'.<</type>><</timed>> [[Return to Love and Abuse.->Love and Abuse]]

<<type 100ms>>bell hooks: “Affection is only one ingredient of love. To truly love we must learn to mix various ingredients—care, affection, recognition, respect, commitment, and trust, as well as honest and open communication. ” <</type>> <<timed 15s>><<type 40ms>><span class="typing fit-text">[[Return to the Ingredients.->Ingredients of Love]]</span><</type>><</timed>>

<<type 40ms>>This is not a poem.<</type>> <<type 20ms>>This is parts of you, and parts of me.<</type>> <<type 28ms>>At twenty-something you said I would always be something.<</type>> <<type 38ms>>Then you taught me how to be a father, how to nourish botanicals and how to be amicable.<</type>> <<type 48ms>>I was stumbling through life like a toddler when I ran into you.<</type>> <<type 58ms>>You taught me that if you don’t enjoy the process you won’t enjoy the craft. <</type>> <<type 68ms>>You taught me how to shoot, pose and laugh.<</type>> <<type 70ms>>You told me to be silly because others told me I couldn’t.<</type>> <<type 88ms>>You all gave me parts of you when the rest of the world wouldn’t.<</type>> <<type 88ms>>Thank you.<</type>> [[Return to the Introduction and read again.->Introduction]]

<<type 60ms>>From nature to nurture I followed formulas of my traumas like a baby on Gerber.<</type>> <<timed 5s>><<type 60ms>>I stumbled into trouble and had to learn to be humble.<</type>> <</timed>> <<type 40ms>>I had to learn to speak up, take up space and learn not to mumble.<</type>> <<timed 14s>><<type 60ms>>You taught me to be assertive without being crass and you gave me the [[recipe->bell hooks Excerpt 2]] to make love last.<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 18s>><<type 40ms>>[[Proceed to the epilogue->Epilogue]]<</type>><</timed>>

<<type 35ms>>The prompt for this poem was to write an open letter to anyone who has made an impact on your life, directly or indirectly.<</type>> <<type 42ms>>On 08/19/2023, we reconnected with those collections that make us, us and reminisce on who we’ve become thanks to them.<</type>> <<type 20ms>>[[Continue with the poem.->Act I]]<</type>> <<type 20ms>>[[Learn more about this interactive experience.->Learn More]] <</type>> /*Debug Menu [[Act I]] [[Act II]] [[Act III]] [[Learn More]] [[Love and Abuse]] [[bell hooks Excerpt]] [[New Life]] [[Miseducation of Love]] */

<div class="passage-title">Learn More</div> <<type 20ms>>This is an interactive-poem written by Aireus Robinson.<</type>> <<type 20ms>>This poem is separated into three acts and includes an epilogue. Each act focuses upon various aspects of life and love, each offering their own perspectives and levels of self-reflection. It's recommended to view the acts in the order in which they were written, but ultimately you may choose to explore them in any order you wish. Written with Twine. Poem by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/BayAireus/" target="_blank">Aireus Robinson</a>, for <a href="https://www.instagram.com/_corazon.a.corazon_/" target="_blank">Corazón a Corazón</a> <a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/abstract-surface-textures-white-concrete-stone-wall_4326138.htm#query=white%20paper%20texture&position=3&from_view=keyword&track=ais">Background Image by lifeforstock</a> on Freepik [[Return to the Introduction.->Introduction]] [[Continue with the poem->Act I]]<</type>>

<<type 10ms>>The tools you’ve given me are to and fro—and the things you’ve taken, I may never know..<</type>> <<timed 6s>><<type 15ms>>You took away my love & replaced it with something new..<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 10s>><<type 50ms>>You showed me that what I once thought was love was, was actually [[abuse->bell hooks Excerpt]].<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 14s>><<type 40ms>> [[Propagated Lessons.->New Life]] <</type>><</timed>>

<<type 40ms>>Picture that—a child in a war zone of shattered plates and bottles of booze;<</type>> <<timed 4s>><<type 40ms>>Unable to shelter in place because the home was not safe.<</type>><</timed>> <<audio "lovemusic" volume 0.3 play>> <<timed 14s>><<audio "soldieroflove" volume 0.2 play>><<type 40ms>>I was a soldier of love.<</type>><</timed>> <<timed 16s>><<type 40ms>>[[Continue to Act III->Act III]]<</type>><</timed>>

<<type 60ms>>You took away that pain and propagated it into new life.<</type>> <<type 40ms>>Now I photosynthesize my trauma with my own light.<</type>> <<timed 5s>>[[Proceed to Act II->Act II]]<</timed>>