Photograph- Andrea Gibson I wish I was a photograph tucked into the corners of your wallet I wish I was a photograph you carried like a future in your back pocket I wish I was that face you show to strangers when they ask you where you come from I wish I was that someone that you come from every time you get there and when you get there I wish I was that someone who got phone calls and postcards saying wish you were here I wish you were here autumn is the hardest season the leaves are all falling and they're falling like they're falling in love with the ground and the trees are naked and lonely I keep trying to tell them new leaves will come around in the spring but you can't tell trees those things they're like me they just stand there and don't listen I wish you were here I've been missing you like crazy I've been hazy eyed staring at the bottom of my glass again thinking of that time when it was so full it was like we were tapping the moon for moonshine or sticking straws into the center of the sun and sipping like icarus would forever kiss the bullets from our guns I never meant to re you know I know you never meant to re lover I know we never meant to hurt each other now the sky clicks from black to blue and dusk looks like a bruise I've been wrapping one night stands around my body like wedding bands but none of them t in the morning they just slip off my ngers and slip out the door and all that lingers is the scent of you I once swore if I threw that scent into a wishing well all the wishes in the world would come true do you remember do you remember the night I told you I've never seen anything more perfect than than snow falling in the glow of a street light electricity bowing to nature mind bowing to heartbeat this is gonna hurt bowing to I love you I still love you like moons love the planets they circle around like children love recess bells I still hear the sound of you and think of playgrounds where outcasts who stutter beneath braces and bruises and acne are nally learning that their rich handsome bullies are never gonna grow up to be happy I think of happy when I think of you so wherever you are I hope you're happy I really do I hope the stars are kissing your cheeks tonight I hope you nally found a way to quit smoking I hope your lungs are open and breathing your life I hope there's a kite in your hand that's ying all the way up to orion and you still got a thousand yards of string to let out I hope you're smiling like god is pulling at the corners of your mouth cause I might be naked and lonely shaking branches for bones but I'm still time zones away from who I was the day before we met you were the rst mile where my heart broke a sweat and I wish you were here I wish you'd never left but mostly I wish you well I wish you my very very best April 15th, 2010Analyzing Poetry- Andrea GibsonIn analyzing Photograph by Andrea Gibson we open our eyes and our hearts to her words and take in the deep emotions of her message. Whether it was her symbolic lines or pure emotion that played at our hearts, Andrea Gibson really sent her message across.Perhaps the relateable role of heartache is what draws us into this piece. Her sentimental attachment to the gurative you in this poem. She wishes, no matter how far away the person may be, that they are living life to the very best that they can. I feel like we can all relate to that, no? Who has not truly felt the pain of heartache? It is what makes us human, to feel love and pain. What makes some poets great is their relation of them to us. If we could not relate to a poem or story or any piece of literature, why would we read it? However, Even the most far fetched fantasy novels show human characteristics that draw us to reading. She mentions how Fall is the most difcult season in this poem by stating: autumn is the hardest season/ the leaves are all falling/ and they're falling like they're falling in love with the ground/ and the trees are naked and lonely/ I keep trying to tell them/ new leaves will come around in the spring/ but you can't tell trees those things/ they're like me they just stand thereand don't listen (Gibson, 14-22).I love this section of the poem. Personally, Autumn is my favorite season. I nd that this passage is just simply appealing in terms of usage and wording. Gibson does a wonderful job conveying these emotions to the reader. When I read this it brought up feelings of the bitter breeze of fall and how hardheaded I can be. It was bittersweet emotion that kept me reading. All happiness is too boring, all sadness is just depressing. It's the happiest medium of them that creates the best poetry.Gibson was talking about the feeling of isolation, depression, heartache, and loneliness. Despite all the pain that her love had caused her, she still wished him or her all the happiness and luck in the world because that is what love was and is to her. She was so infatuated with this person that she couldn't care less how far he or she had traveled, how long he or she had been gone- she just simply wished for a better life for him or her. She talked of how no one-night-stand could possibly ever replace the love she had. No matter how hard she tried to ll the void it was still open.Her poem tells a story of life, of emotion, of pain, and of love. The anguish she shows in this poem really just take a stab at the reader's emotions which was purposefully done. It is what all great poets do. Her usage of imagery really paints the reader a vivid picture while reading, like children love recess bells/ I still hear the sound of you/ and think of playgrounds/ where outcasts who stutter/ beneath braces and bruises and acne/ are nally learning that their rich handsome bullies/ are never gonna grow up to be happy/ I think of happy when I think of you/ so wherever you are I hope you're happy (Gibson, 52-60). Here she is talking about no matter who or what you were you can still amount to happiness because it is a part in being human. She was head over heels blinded by the pain that was love. She didn't care where they were now. She just wanted safety for her love. It was unconditional, like how a mother loves her child. The tone of this poem is a bit sad, perhaps a little dark. It expressed all her anguish and suffering she felt in her heart while her love was away. It was a mix of letting go and just holding on to hope that some day her love would come back. Sometimes you need to just go for it, no matter how impossible it may seem. If you heart is in it, go for it. Then, at other times, you need to know when enough is enough. It is all a personal decision. This is all reecting how the sadness of her poem was personied when she paints a bitter picture of dead leaves and the weird kids on the playgrounds. She spoke of outcasts and the dead leaves of fall. Her love was not dead, because the leaves would eventually grow back. They just always have to fall down rst. Perhaps she was the weird kid on the playground, but they all grow up to be something someday.The mood reected the tone in about the same way. I found that I could relate to this poem in some ways, so it brought up all those bittersweet memories of the past for me. It felt and odd mood lingering in the air, like determination to not lose hope met the happiness that it had happened. I think the mood also relates to the poem because all poetry is like music. How it makes you feel is up to you. Some songs remind me of good times in my life where it makes me happy, some music depresses me. I think poetry is just like that. The emotions it will bring, is from your unique experiences. In my experience, I believe that this poem had a sad tone with hints of happiness and hope. Although Andrea Gibson's poem was packed with metaphors and similes, it was relatively straightforward. Anyone with half a brain could honestly tell because of the emotions she shows. The words add emphasis, but honestly, it's the tone of the poem that sets the meaning. Hoe she carefully picked her wording, exaggerated the emotional span which made for a much better poem. Every reader should be able to relate to the poem. In nal analysis, the poem was as real and true as words can get. I think she has successfully captured, love, pain, anguish, struggle, and in general, the human nature of compassion. It was, all in all, a touching poem.So, why did I choose this poem? I picked this poem because, out of all the poetry I read, this one still stood out to me. I have read countless poems about how the writer is so deeply in love, or has more angst then a person could possibly feel. Poems like those just seem generic to me. I think Gibson did a wonderful job showing all her emotion without killing you with metaphors or boring you with being too straightforward. She writes beautifully and her writing should be recognized for that. We connect to poetry from experience and through experience we gain knowledge. With this knowledge we have gained we can really understand her words and what he or she is saying. We can truly understand the writers emotion. Understanding emotion is probably the best quality you could probably have. Anyone can go look up words in a dictionary, but to get the true meaning? That's deeper then what anyone else could tell you. Bibliography"andrea gibson::poems::photograph." andreagibson.org :: Ofcial Site of Poet and Activist, Andrea Gibson :: Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion ::. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. .