Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Poem: "Speaking of Kinship"

This poem is spillover from the November 8, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by [personal profile] nsfwords. It also fills the "friends" square in my 10-4-16 card for the Games & Sports Bingo fest.


"Speaking of Kinship"


We have words for
the ties that bind --
for friends and family --
but sometimes the words
that we have aren't enough.

So friends and family
become framily and
grow on from there.

We have clan and tribe
to describe extended families,
but beyond those ties

there lies 'ohana,
kin of blood and spirit.

The Greeks had dozens
of words for love, and most of
those spoke beyond the bounds
of sex and romance alone.

They left us philautia,
the sense of self-respect;
philia, affection between friends;
and extending outward from there,
agape, the love of humanity.

The reason is that,
in speaking of kinship,
each bond is unique, and
so the words, too, are
always expanding.

* * *

Notes:

Framily may refer to "friends and family" or "friends who become family."

'Ohana is a Hawaiian term for extended family and friends.  It is beautifully explained in the movie Lilo & Stitch.  Related to this is the tradition of hanai  or informal adoption.

Explore some Greek words for love.

Tags: cyberfunded creativity, family skills, fishbowl, linguistics, poem, poetry, reading, weblit, writing
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  • 2 comments
meridian_rose

meridian_rose

December 12 2016, 11:43:37 UTC 4 years ago

This is lovely. We keep developing new words to express our romantic, sensual, sexual attractions, but we've forgotten the words we already had for the many ways we love outside of attraction on a romantic-sexual spectrum.
ysabetwordsmith

Thank you!

ysabetwordsmith

December 12 2016, 11:46:57 UTC 4 years ago

>> This is lovely. <<

Yay!

>> We keep developing new words to express our romantic, sensual, sexual attractions, but we've forgotten the words we already had for the many ways we love outside of attraction on a romantic-sexual spectrum. <<

Sooth. We need more words for relationships that aren't based on crotch feelings.