The Underdog And The Stranger
sometimes we simply have to be vulnerable
to be mortal
and it happens when we extend a hand and let the other feel
that your hands are real
with blood and veins and flesh and bones
that when someone gets a sharp knife and slices your wrist
you bleed real blood
because you are not a ghost, a virtual image of somebody else,
because you are not a mannequin or wood,
or someone else appearing in another person's name
vulnerability is humanity, it happens when you walk alone and you
wear your face without a mask, a veil, a hat, a head dress,
it happens when you expose yourself
to someone and you tell him that you are lonely and you need a friend
that the weather is cold and that you need someone to be with
simply to talk without any self-interest at all
then someone laughs at you and even tells that if you keep
following him he will kick you in the ass
that there is simply no possibility of a connection between a hand to another hand
anymore
vulnerability is when you finally accept that other people are strangers too
and they do not have time for any other intrusion
for another stranger like me
vulnerability is simply letting the other person know that you have no other name except your name that you have no other reserved spare tire for
yourself except yourself
that you are yourself and that you are hurt is vulnerability
but that is not the end of it all
vulnerability is also realizing that you are finally human
and that you have learned to live with this humanity
despite the strangeness and the weakness
as others keep the wall within themselves
fortifying fences and excluding
others till the end of night
till another day
and another
night
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
There can be no vulnerability without risk; there can be no community without vulnerability; there can be no peace, and ultimately no life, without community.
quote by M. Scott Peck
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I understand now that the vulnerability I've always felt is the greatest strength a person can have. You can't experience life without feeling life. What I've learned is that being vulnerable to somebody you love is not a weakness, it's a strength.
quote by Elisabeth Shue
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When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability... To be alive is to be vulnerable.
quote by Madeleine L'Engle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I think sexy is vulnerability, and there's no way you can act vulnerable. It just has to be there.
quote by Michael Zaslow
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Well, softness and femininity like yours people don't expect of me; so when they find me emotional and capable of real vulnerability, they're surprised.
quote by Faye Dunaway
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.
quote by Susan Sontag
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Innocent victims
Girls by large fall victims of
Predatory sexual attention
Crafted by a teacher, coach,
The boss or an uncle from
Proximity, sanctioned affinity,
Guarded secrecy on one hand
and girl’s curiosity and her vulnerability
on the other hand, And since then
They have been carrying
The guilt of their impulsive acts.
28.01.2007
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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When We Are Left Alone
it was in macau
when we were finally left on our own
waiting till three o'clock
with instruction to proceed
to gate 11
no one was there
except the two of us
waiting on cold seats
and i was figuring out
where to go
while you simply
hold my hand
lay your head
on my shoulder
and then
you start to whistle
a love song
it was a little dark when the
boat finally came
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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It takes a stronger Man
It takes a stronger man
To value a woman’s strength
To encourage her strength
Not to be threatened by it
But see it as a sign of his own strength
In a world where some men need weak women to feel strong
Where some men get validation from physical dominance
Where dependent, submissive and needy women are celebrated
A Media that commercialised self-disrespecting and confused girls
Yes, I stand my ground!
It takes a stronger man to love a strong woman
Not to be wavered by societies misrepresentation of masculinity
Not to conform to the patterns of this world
To understand and recognise that in a woman’s strength lies hidden vulnerability
To know that it takes a strong woman to show vulnerability
poem by Wanelisa Albert
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Learning Well Life's Lesson The Real Way
a virtual heart
a second hand experience
of love and pain
and half-deaths from time to time
you call this learning
and you like it
because you stand at a certain distance
and tell yourself
that is enough for me
and then you
leave
and face another world out there
not feeling well
what you have just seen
bloodily
from a fence
and a thin wall
it is different when you bleed yourself
when the wound in your face
tells your eyes
this is it!
when the pain that seeps to your bones
tell your heart
this is it!
when the shattered pieces of your bones rattle and shout at you
this is it!
when the gaping skin sliced by a thin, sharp knife
tells you on the face
bloody hell! this is the pain!
and it is with you sticking on your palm
wherever you go and then you cover your mouth and
say, 'Oh, My God! '
this is learning the hardest way
when it is you that is broken
and not someone else
when it is not another person's story
that you read one night beside your soft bed
and you cry
when you learn to use the word 'empathy'
or 'sympathy'
or the justification of the word
'internalization' about other people's
tragedies, their own miseries and laments
their drowning in the raging sea
their head and hands cut and eaten by unidentifiable sharks
while you watch the show on tv
as you eat your pie and drink your orange juice
and you see
and feel the 'mess of their lives' just like another hit movie
oh, this will be different now,
it is you
do not think or utter death as another word of the dictionary,
it will be different now,
it is you who is dying,
not someone else on the other hospital bed by the other window
then you begin to learn, how is it, what is it,
and how painful is it really. It is you now, baby.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Dick Van Dyke was my first idol. He's an amazing physical comedian, like a classic clown, but also very smart and not afraid to show vulnerability.
quote by Douglas Wood
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Resurface
It faded, it lost grip
It varnished & disappeared
To say the least
The rate of my heart
Beats began to beat for
Several times under a
Mili-second
Yes, a mili-second
Vulnerability spread all of
My thoughts in no time
Helpless, co-incidental, deceived
Voiced out as the commonest
Adjectives ever brushed on
Perturbed, divided in thoughts
And simply stunned. Hope rose
In again. Entitlements began
To make-up
Silvered edifaces appeared
Following my footprints.
Resurfaced hope! !
Resurface! ! !
poem by Prince Kenny Osei
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It Is A Risk Well Worth Taking
My vulnerability is yours.
My temptations is yours.
A union in the body and mind.
Just the smallest connection creates a fire.
It feels as if the flame will forever burn.
But then it dwindles and goes out.
The time can be infinite.
It is a risk well worth taking in the art of love making.
poem by Ace Of Black Hearts
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Hollywood is run by men who are big on vulnerability.
quote by Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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A Teaching Of The Facts Can Relax
Vulnerability when needed,
Can attract true love.
With a getting of some pity too.
A vulnerability when needed,
Can attract true love.
With a bit of innocence,
That can put one in the mood.
And when,
Facts of life are slow...
A teaching of the facts can relax.
A teaching of the facts,
Can get one to relax.
And when,
A nervousness sets in...
A teaching of the facts can relax,
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
And when,
Eyes begin to cry...
A teaching of the facts can relax,
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
Vulnerability when needed,
Can attract true love.
With a teaching of the facts to relax,
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
A vulnerability when needed,
Can attract true love.
With a bit of innocence,
That can put one in the mood.
And when,
A nervousness sets in...
A teaching of the facts can relax,
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
And when,
Eyes begin to cry...
A teaching of the facts can relax,
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
In those moments.
A teaching of the facts can relax.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Hand
only the human hand,
the caring hand,
the hand covered in blood
and filth, the hand swollen
bruised, and beaten...
the open hand,
not a fist anymore hand,
not afraid to let go hand,
never letting go hand...
feed the baby, plow the field hand,
stroke the face of
the old woman dying hand...
light the fires, sweep the floors hand...
the praying hand, the picking hand,
the paint the soul hand...
only the human hand
can touch with the heart of God!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Waiting For The Time That I Have No More To Say
i am simply waiting
for the time when i have nothing anymore
to say and
then i will just sit there
in the corner looking at the sun
that will no longer rise or set,
not
really static,
it simply passes,
as though nothing happens.
and
when i have nothing more to say
it simply means,
goodbye,
i have freed myself
at last,
from the bondage
of speech from
the opression
of words,
from the anxiety
of the syllable,
from the demands
of certain
letters to finally form
a word,
from the
mandate of a blank slate
searching for
its own meaning
in whatever i speak.
and write
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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In the beginning, people think vulnerability will make you weak, but it does the opposite. It shows you're strong enough to care.
quote by Victoria Pratt
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Euphoria
Since the first time
I saw your beautiful eyes,
I have been honestly shaking,
At first glance
They successfully
Hypnotized me..
Those eyes that to me reveal
The questions they would ask
And answers they plead for
Which my own cannot grasp...
I want to know
O f what substance they are made
Currently cutting my soul
Causing it to bleed...
But wandering gazes
Incriminate me...
Of what? sensing my
Vulnerability?
Faithless anxiety
Esteeming my open wounds
Strings of love-fly away
Letting it go like hot balloons...
O! those beautiful eyes
Whose bewitched me so dearly,
And are already gone
But, ironically, I still recall...
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poem by Romeo Della Valle
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Russia knows of the vulnerability of her frontiers in this part of the world.