Does your sexual orientation align with your sexual behavior and intimate relationships? Why? Does your gender identity align with your gender expression? Why?
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Option #1
So this is how it feels to be broken
shredded in pieces
This is how it feels to slip
beneath
Society
Hanging the person who I used to try so hard to be
from a bare tree in the dying, yellow-grassed fields
of my past
Your lips on mine
are breaking me…
…and making me whole…
So, this, is how it feels to be broken.
— Amelia Browning
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Option #2
“Fire and Ice”
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
— Robert Frost
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Option #3
“Wild Winds”
Surrounded in the unforeseen
In fate I will confide
For I have lost my bearings—
The wild winds my guide
And cold, uncaring snow is falling
Breezes through the trees are calling
Footsteps in the dark are winding—
Promises I’ve made are binding
I never planned to be here
Or to have these thoughts I think
I never thought the winds would blow me
To the edge or to the brink
Standing at the cliff side thinking
In depths of contemplation sinking
If I jump, I fear I’ll die;
But if I don’t, I’ll never fly
An audience is useless
For the voice that never sings
And wild winds are useless
For the soul that has no wings
— Josh DeFriez
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Option #4
I want you to know
one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.
Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.
If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.
If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.
But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.
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Option #5
“Holy Sonnets: Batter my heart, three-person’d God”
Batter my heart, three-person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp’d town to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
— John Donne
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Option #6
“I Kissed a Girl”
This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion
It’s not what, I’m used to
Just wanna try you on
I’m curious for you
Caught my attention
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick,
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it
I liked it
No, I don’t even know your name
It doesn’t matter, You’re my experimental game
Just human
nature, It’s not what, Good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it I liked it,
Us girls we are so magical
Soft skin, red lips, so kissable
Hard to resist so touchable
Too good to deny it
Ain’t no big deal, it’s innocent
I kissed a girl and I liked it
The taste of her cherry chap stick
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight
I kissed a girl and I liked it I liked it
— Katy Perry
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Option #7
“W(hole)ness”
At the edge of the schoolyard, content to play with few
In the far right field, or sprinting the margins of the court
I stood outside the huddled mass of children
their quiet whispers filling me with shame
knowing that a part of me is different from the rest
Far away in a tiny village at a jungle’s edge
with my band of brothers on both sides
I cast off my awkwardness and discovered my essence
while sharing God’s fullness with a book
giving of myself that for a time made me feel complete
I told her that I loved her, that together we’d always be
But something eery stirred within me
I knew a strange small piece was missing from my core
Confusion racked my being
So at the edge of her driveway I left her standing sobbing
But inside all along
Those yearnings burned strong
And in my heart did I pray
God, make me anything but gay
So young and eager to fill my gaping hole, another entered my life
She, I was determined would make me feel whole
In the center of the room we knelt
with mirrors on both sides to symbolize
an endless promise we made; trusting in God’s blessing
It wasn’t long after that I cowered in the corner
my heart breaking, body shaking
The secret I thought was buried deep
lay exposed to both our horror
It cannot be what comprises me; denying my own nature
In the center of the circle, cradled in our arms
a piece of me laid sweetly sleeping
I sent a prayer heavenward with trust in Him above
This small babe filled a portion of my gaping hole
My heart resolved to forever cherish and guard him
But inside all along
Those yearnings burned strong
And in my heart did I pray
God, make me anything but gay
Slowly at first, then more each day my heart grew colder
That hollowness I’d tried for so long to deny
was feverishly eating away at my core
Those beliefs I once treasured were causing such angst
that with contempt I hurled them; they shattered on the floor
Feeling scalded by the only faith I knew
I grasped for belonging among the margins
Relief encompassed me as I found others
with hearts oriented in a similar manner
I ceased to loathe that part of me; my truth I did accept
In my haste for real completeness
I made my way to the inviting haven
With arms outstretched only a few steps away
I then glanced down to my terror and saw my ruptured gash
Another large piece of me had been abandoned at the gate
But inside all along
Those yearnings burned strong
And in my heart did I pray
God, make me anything but gay
Feeling faint and remorseful yet with pain I did retreat
I gathered myself up, clutching my torn pieces
Consigned to live a life split between two worlds
Building barriers about; it’s the isolation I thought I deserved
Striving to keep my battered soul from being further shredded
How can I know the truth, and with it be set free?
I’m left to long for wholeness while living on the fray
How do I live without denying part of me
For with all God’s blessed me with, He also made me gay?
— Devon
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Option #8
In a Dark Time
And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
Option #9
but I was told I could never use them here on earth.
I was told if I wanted my angel wings in Heaven, I would have to watch all the other birds fly.
And so as I watch the other birds soar on their wings, it often makes me cry.
From the pigeon to the hummingbird to the swallow to the hawk,
I watch without a vantage point because my shoes are filled with rocks.
I have these wings, but cannot fly.
I can.
They say.
But only when I die.
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