Maybe our demeanors never change
Maybe our minds never stay the same
Maybe our souls are damned for eternity
Maybe our actions will change our destinies.
We may grow like ivy crawling up the side of our homes
We may be frozen by the first frost of the season
Trapping us in a state we can no longer escape
Until spring comes to thaw us out
We may become ivy that blossoms
Blossoms into beauty with no imperfections
Blossom and have potential to be something astounding
There is potential lurking…
We may become ivy that grows thorns
When our thorns harm what affects us
It releases a deadly, dangerous poison
And infects our hearts with feelings like envy, turning them black
No matter the ivy growing…
Whether it is poisoned or healing
The ivy has potential, whether it be helpful or harmful
But it is the ivy's choice, a choice we can not influence--ever.
Ivy is a part of nature
It grows in size and shape and develops individuality
Ivy climbs, falls, dips, rises, like simple emotions
It's vines twist and turns so they are that of Daedalus's labyrinth…
Good or bad, wrong or right, it is not for us to decide
We may be frozen, we may be thawed
However, we will not let anything stop us
We are the ivy that is growing
With a certain potential lurking…
Author's Note: (This is an English essay I had to write and hopefully this will help!) Simple words, simple phrases, simple similes can be easily connected to the human conscious and the true nature of man. Robert Louis Stevenson's, Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, helped shape this poem to focus on two separate sides of the world, but also show that they are connected. This poem metaphorically connects us to nature, gives depth behind the meaning of life, or our purpose in life; shows holy and evil, and how the two are not as different as we may think. Discussing relationships to one man with the rest of the world, Stevenson writes, "His friends were those of his own blood or those whom he had known the longest;his affections, like ivy, were the growth of time, they implied no aptness in the object" (2). Using the powerful simile of ivy, which can be either poisonous, or harmless and beautiful, I tried to present how everything in nature has a purpose, and how outside forces can and will act upon it. We are like ivy. We grow with a potential, and while we may not know what that potential is, even outside forces have little effect on us as we make our choices that lead us down the path to our destined potential. Each vine of ivy is different from the last, therefore making the vine as unique as the next human.
