28 August 2024

Shared life

It's a tale you've heard a thousand times
It's a tale you've never heard before
It's where I've come from and who I am
And me figuring out what I'm here for

I was born, I grew tall
I studied, I got a job
I did things the same as you all
Made me just one of the mob 

But just because we were all born
That doesn't mean it wasn't a journey
We all experience the night and the morn
So we all say "it doesn't concern me"

We are all unique, we call a different place home
We all take a separate path on this earth
But every step forms us, even if not just our own
We are still defined by those things we share since birth 

We are alone, together.
We move different directions in a crowd
You are yourself, that's true forever
But it's ok to have shared an experience, and still be proud 

21 August 2024

Beyond the end

I began at my beginning
But I'll do my best not to end at my end
This world will soon outlast me
There will still be a future to defend

So let me leave a legacy
Not of wealth and gold
But of selfless acts of kindness
And of tales to be told

I hope that in my studies
I advance what we know a little
I hope I built people up
Rather than trying to belittle

I hope that with my poems
I can raise a spirit that's in need
That the words I'm writing now
Can build and they can breed

So that all that I have done
And all that I will ever do
Will maybe inspire someone
And that someone could be you

For a legacy is grand to tell the tale of a man
But it's best when it invests in a new story, if it can

14 August 2024

Find your drumkit

 (Can prelude with some random beatboxing or tapping out rhythm on random objects)

Sometimes in life, I feel like I'm *happy beatbox*
Other times, I'm feeling a bit more funky like *jazz beat box*
Then, occasionally, I have to take it a little bit slower like *sad beat box*
But often I'm just feeling lost like *beat box where the final beat is uncertain*

Sometimes the best doesn't sound right on your tongue
It doesn't feel like it comes from the air in you lungs
But this isn't a poem about the right *b* or *k* or *p* or *ts* or any of those
It's a poem about finding you beats and finding your flows
Not about solving a tune to be academically true
But about finding the rhythm inside of you

it is *hard* to find your tempo
your timing
your intensity

But you do have it! be honest with yourself, you do have it!
Have you never felt yourself moving to a song?
Said a sentence that resonates?
Or had the urge to grab a pair of sticks
and hit them against some objects
just to hear what noise it makes?

I like to imagine a world where we all make our own drum kits
and every drum kit is made out of random objects
but they're things that resonate with us
things that snare us
build up our base
put skin in the game
are symbols of what we care about
and how we want the world to hear us

we don't learn how to make our own drum kits in school
if we are taught, it's like this :
Today, class, we are learning standard timings on standard kits
and some people are going to sound great on the kits the world has decided are standard
it's important to learn the basics
but we aren't going to have time or budget to teach you more than that

...some people never learn it's possible to make their own noise at all

wherever you're at in life, I hope you find your drumkit
I hope you get a chance to play it, as loud as you like sometimes!
I hope you all never forget that feeling of listening to someone who has found their own drumkit, and how cool they seem
you're going to want to take their role set, but you must resist the temptation
take a break or a high hat but you must create something uniquely your own

just, if you take anything from this, don't stop anyone from building something, even if it doesn't seem like a good arrangement
and build your own.
listen to other people because advice is good
but reject advice occasionally too
experiment
make random noises that shouldn't work
but just might
but only for you

make a drumkit no one else can make
and play it like only you can.

and then, let the world hear you play.

7 August 2024

A clean breath

a clean breath is a gift
with air that's great to taste
to give your chest a lift
hold it. there, in place

let it rest a little on your tongue
let it rest a little in your lungs
and when you then exhale 
enjoy the whistle it has sung

give a little sigh
for a good breath that played its part
never question why
it felt a rushing purpose to depart

breathing ain't always easy
even though we do it every day
embrace a breath that enter cleanly
before it goes away

***

dedicated to my fellow asthmatics