Where Words Play.
Poetry.
Each month will feature a piece from the archives.
December.
Gifts to Give An Introvert.
(After Kevin Yang - How To Love Your Introvert)
A playlist of your favorite songs.
Personal space.
A cornucopia of snacks.
Movie recommendations.
Random TikTok videos.
A weighted blanket.
$100 gift card from GrubHub.
A framed picture of a sunset at the beach.
Silence.
Random reels on Instagram.
A hug (but only occasionally, if you’re cool with us like that, and if you ask first,
unless we’re cool enough that you can tell when we’re asking using everything except our words).
Sleep, tons of sleep.
Time indoors.
More silence.
A book.
A look that says, “Thanks for letting me drag you out of the house, let’s go home”.
Gratitude.
Fuzzy socks.
A washer and dryer because laundromats are the worst.
Peace of mind.
Pieces of you that no one else has touched.
Showing how pieces of you are now pieces of us.
Even more silence.
Handwritten notes.
Puzzles, board games, and Lego sets.
A new mug, yes, even if we already have the same one.
Don’t forget: sleep.
Your favorite conspiracy theories.
Video games.
An open mind, an open ear, an open heart.
Did I mention something to eat?
Even more silence.
Less silence when we’ve been silent for too long, radio silence can be the playlist of depression.
Patience.
A playlist with both our favorite songs taking turns with intentionally sequenced transitions.
Your worst jokes. Jokes we said before cleverly thrown back at us.
Your best laugh. Your worst laugh. Especially your ugliest laugh, a laugh only momma could love.
Texting before a call, but avoid calls.
Honesty.
Patience if one of these gifts doesn’t land the same a second time.
No gift at all besides the time you make to spend with us,
understanding, patience, peace of mind,
pieces of you we can use as Legos to build a hug at 1 AM instead of DM’ing an ex on Instagram.
Tears on handwritten notes as reminders we’re someone’s favorite book,
that we bring happy tears too,
that we’re appreciated,
that the little things are actually humongous,
that someone looks at our fuzzy little feelings and isn’t scared to walk in our shoes
to stomp on whatever it is that’s bothering us.
A key to that mask of yours, we all have one.
Random texts about nothing.
Nothing at all, sometimes.
Literally nothing at all,
besides being your most honest self and allowing us to be that too.
Behind the Poem.
This is like the fifth draft of " Gifts to Give An Introvert.", The first draft was written on August 26th, 2023. It was written after Kevin Yang's "How to Love Your Introvert".
​
In the spirit of the holiday season, this one felt appropriate to knock some dust off and hit another edit.
"Gifts to Give An Introvert." goes deeper into last month's poem and speaks more about how my introversion can be loved and appreciated. Now that I'm older, I can put actual words behind the feeling. Does that mean I'm an expert? No. And I'm only speaking for myself but maybe others can relate too, introvert or otherwise.​
