Love is a Materialistic Thing - By: Rania Butt

Love is a materialistic thing

It never bandaged my bruises

or put my drawings up on the fridge

It never really chased bubbles down the street

or stroked my hair

Love was living in a mansion with 14 bedrooms

and 16 bathrooms

Love was being escorted to first class seats with

leather tapestry

Love was always fulfilling but not warm not

gentle

Like an archetecurized house that never really

felt like home despite the delicate marble floors

and engraved ceilings

One where your voice bounces off the walls

back and forth

Love was always a materialistic thing

So when you gave me a flower pen

that you found in the 3rd grade to offer to an undiscovered friendship

I didn't know how to feel I felt warm like wooden floors, like the first day

of snow and a coloring book

I felt like the discovery of Lamprocapnos and

seeing a dog on the street

And when your fingers curled around the

strands of my hair and they turned damp

I wondered what you were doing

And when you let me eat the rest of your ice

cream

And when you’d let me sleep despite the

months apart

And when you’d wash my clothes

And when you’d do my homework

I wondered what the hell you were doing

Something dazzlingly peculiar that had my

eyes lighting up with adoration

Pondering how something so small made me

feel so big, so full

So you can understand when I said love

is a materialistic thing

I didn’t know love could be that too

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.:

This poem is about the idea of love and how it's more than just material. It's about someone who feels a sense of emptiness with their life as it lacks the warm feeling experienced through thoughtful, sentimental love. While materialistic love didn't feel wrong, it felt somewhat empty. The poem follows the journey of learning that love is more than just items, and is gestures, care, and kindness too. The poem ends off with a line that contradicts the first statement, as now the individual has learned that love is more than material.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.:

Growing up, my parents satisfied their parenting by treating me with things that money could buy. I was never particularly close to them, and never really felt that sense of warmth. Of course, being given things was the only sense of love I knew. When I met my first friend, she was so thoughtful, and her actions were very meaningful to me, resulting in confusion. How could small actions make me feel so much more warmth? The same warmth some of my favourite things do, like seeing dogs on the street. A very specific line is "I felt warm like wooden floors," which refers to the warmth I felt when going to my grandparents house that literally hard warm wooden floors, but was also the only time I felt warmth through love too. The poem finishes off with the understanding that love was more than just material items. The final line contradicts the first, as the beginning starts off as a very sure statement, while the end is after learning love is more than what you can be physically given.

Why did you choose to write this poem?:

I choose to write this poem because I very much value the lesson of learning the real warmth of genuine love. It's an important lesson to me, and I appreciate my best friend for unconsciously teaching me that lesson.

Do you have any tips or anything to share with the youth writers who may be reading this?

Sometimes speaking the thoughts you want to write helps turning them into a beautiful piece of poetry.