My Darkness Is… a poem
I recently attended a TEDxMileHigh talk featuring Poet Laureate Jovan Mays and was stirred with such inspiration that I wrote two poems during our workshop. Rather than edit these (which the perfectionist in wants to do… possibly for months or years), I thought I would put them out in the world as they are. Perfect or not. Perfectly imperfect.
My Darkness My Darkness is... The nothingness that take shape in the midnight sky and grows into something more Something with teeth and fur Something that is invisible to everyone but me, but sometimes, it's all I can see A massive cloud of what if's and what could be In my Darkness... I am a time traveler equipped with nothing but a wish upon a star and fairy dust And I hope that is enough If you visit my Darkness... You must leave all judgements behind - pack them away before tey crumble to dust Because control does not exist here Only shadow and ash What you won't see in my Darkness... Is that it's still me Behind the slimy scales and claws Behind this monster, I'm still here Yelling out for help, even when my eyes are blank and my face hidden Inside, an obsidian sea, and I'm drowning in it But I'm still here, I'm still me My Darkness moves like... A fluid wave or a drifting cloud It ebbs and flows and then, it's gone Not for long, not forever Because my darkness is me I wish I knew my Darkness the same way... That I know myself Because the surprise is wearing me thin Like a single drop in a ocean of fear Yet, even in my Darkness... I am beautiful and strange A dream, or a nightmare The words do not matter because I can now see in the dark And my fear will not eat me alive
Speak of Me Before I'm deemed history, wiped from the pages of my life Speak of my quiet imagination That I had the power to till a room with rainbow light Speak of my heart that beat steadily But often too fast for this world Speak of the invisibility cloak that shielded me from the world But those who saw me anyway Tell them I loved so fiercely that it hurt Tell them my silence didn't mean complacent but rather, contemplative Tell them my destiny was a massive universe Even if I only made it to the moon I see stars bursting forth in a cataclysmic explosion Even when I sat by myself, my face covered by a book
More about Jovan Mays:
Jovan Mays is the emeritus Poet Laureate of Aurora, Colorado, a National Poetry Slam Champion, and the Youth Voice Coordinator of Aurora Public Schools. Mays has worked with over one million students through poetry outreach in his program, Your Writing Counts. He is the author of 3 books: Pride, The Great Box Escape, and This Is Your Song, and has been published by The Pilgrimage, Button Poetry, and Write About Now. He graduated from Chadron State College with a degree in Secondary History Education. He is accompanied by Tyson Bennett, Jesse Hunter, and Chadzila of Von Disco.
Find him on Twitter @Jovanmays
TEDxMileHigh Adventures: https://www.tedxmilehigh.com/adventures/
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