Hello my dear JFR Readers,
After finishing my first blog, I couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like to do a blog that contrasted the blog about loneliness. Now, the question is, what is the opposite of loneliness? It’s quite hard to find a word to be the perfect opposite fit of loneliness. It couldn’t be un-loneliness? Supposedly that is a word. It doesn’t quite fit as perfectly like sad and happy, mad and calm, and etc. Sociable too doesn’t seem to be on par in the gravity of loneliness. According to the Merriam-Webster thesaurus, the antonyms of loneliness are connected, coupled, linked, and loved. Why does nothing seem to fit the word loneliness? Maybe, in a manner befitting its definition, it can’t be a pair with anything.
Either way, I find it strange how love and loneliness are connected. If you’re loved, does that mean you can’t be lonely? Is love really the antonym/antidote for loneliness, after all, all those synonyms of loneliness seem to be connected to the feeling of being loved and connected. Maybe the fact that I can’t wrap my mind around what the antonym of loneliness is, only shows proof of the complexity of loneliness, which is why I love poetry. Poems are able to describe the emotions I’m feeling and convey the words that I don’t know how to say. I hope you enjoy these poems, featuring the opposite of loneliness.
“Disconnection” by Ash, is about the concept of connection. There is so much technology that can be utilized to build connections and form relationships. We have it at our finger tips, but often we do not utilize it leading to disconnection in relationships and growth in mental illness.
Disconnection by Ash
Humanity is at the ****** of connection
Connection is plastered to our bones
It’s on our wrists dinging reminding us to take our steps that will apparently make us one with nature, it’s latched to our arms so while we are so spent attaching ourselves to nature that we don’t have to attach our phones to our hands, it’s our sun rise, it’s our evening prayer, heck it’s the only thing reminding us to wake up in the morning and connect with these people that we can only reach through these dull technological connections. Facebook says we’re here to help you connect! The Bible app dings reminding you, “keep in check!” You’re surrounded by connection, it immerses you and embraces you with its WiFi streamed arms and blue tinted light
But shouldn’t you be embracing the connection? Shouldn’t you be the one to swallow connection? Shouldn’t you be the one to amplify connection?
Humanity is at the ****** of connection but we are disconnected.. Shouldn’t the rate of depression fall not rise with every purchase of an iPhone. We are disconnected
From ourselves from nature from the spiritual realm and from each other because we connect our souls to these arguable objects of connection. Seems like we need an intervention from connection. Shouldn’t connection flow within our bones and not simply be plastered to it? Connection is around us, but we’re not making the connection.
The second poem, “A Xeno of Connection” by David Moss is about a connection that goes beyond any social confines; a love that is pure and strong regardless of status, race, and especially gender. There are a lot of misconceptions when people of the opposite sex are friends, but this poem describes a love that disregards gender in pursuit of a connection that is desired by all. The lines of a relationship are never blurred and this is the kind of relationship in which you would do anything for the person, regardless of gender, but have no interest in being with them sexually or romantically. It is a relationship where either side can bear their hearts out to one another.
A Xeno of Connection by David Moss
[Excerpt]
You see to me most of our first impressions
Are the false flags of real connections
And if we choose to make those last
Then aren’t we just living in the past?
So rather than that, let me be forward.
I want to connect with you, in whatever way we both want it to be.
And that right there to me
Is my definition of equality
I mean
Is it fair to assume that if i’m male
That I’m simply out to get some tail?
That isn’t me
And that isn’t it
And personally
I think gender roles are *******
So please allow, wholeheartedly
For you to see the real me
Rather than a mirage of assumptions
Society may have you choose to believe
Of what a male is meant to entail….
Truly.
This.
Is.
Me.
Go to this link for the full version of the poem: https://hellopoetry.com/words/connection/
“Missed Connection” by Osiria Melody is another modern poem that plays on the social media phenomenon about connection. The poem reveals the hidden darkness of seeking connection through social media and how feeble it actually is. That connection will only bring loneliness and pain, so it urges to make a connection not bound by technology but by face to face experiences. In the end, when we’re old and weary, our phones won’t be able to take care of us. In fact, it’s the people who we left behind that we need to hold onto and have join us on each journey, even our last. The poem reminds us that if we’re going to make connections, we must make sure they last a lifetime and not a year when we exchange for an updated phone.
Missed connection by Osiria Melody
Amazing how a text message conveying
affection
Regarded as a few lines of dejection
Amazing how a photo of joviality,
Regarded as a—fallacy
Amazing how a video of life’s best moments,
Ignites a fire of jealousy, a ring of volcanic
comments surging with scorching words
Amazing how my likes and comments strikes
another’s conscience,
Belittling their importance since being popular
means everything
Having the most followers means being a valid
member of society
Amazing how the fame of being a social media
phenomenon is the best thing in the world,
Nothing could replace the missed connection that you and I share
Among the shared posts and counterfeit feelings of emojis,
We lose what it means to connect to one another
personally
Rather than living in life’s moments selflessly,
Everything is about me, me, me
Not you, ’cause my posts matter more for my
self-esteem
A missed connection of what reality means,
Above the ubiquitous screens emitting blue light,
Fill in all of these captured memories
Not through a glowing device, but through eyes of authenticity
Experiencing what it means to cross the bridge between an idealized world to mundane
A missed connection of what reality means
For once, put down that screen and live in reality with me
Sources referenced: https://hellopoetry.com/words/connection/
— Henrietta Eghan, Blogger
Henrietta Eghan’s Bio:
Henrietta O. Eghan is a Ghanaian geek, a book nerd, an otaku, and a sophomore at Lewis University. She is an English major with a minor in Computer Science with the goal of becoming a technical writer. Eghan writes for the Lewis Flyer Newspaper and works in the English department. She loves to read literature and watch films from around the world and across genres. Eghan loves to read Japanese, Chinese, African, Mexican and American books. Whether it is as a novel, a movie, Korean-drama, a manga, fanfiction or a literary magazine, her favorite past time is to read and explore different cultures.