My first stab at slam poetry. The audio is below and then the text is below that.
The Fiery Gift
He was told to accept failure;
he was told to be satisfied with an imperfect result
What they didn't understand was that it was impossible
This tenacity, ferocity, intensity and stubbornness was in his blood:
Injected like a permanent poison
He was a boy full of passion,
full of energy and commitment
But when it came down to that one positive,
he could not let go
He clung on to it like a mother to her newborn child
Or a child to his new lego set
This feedback seemed impossible to listen to
How could he change human nature
It seemed insurmountable and unsolvable
Like rocket science
Like they were chaining his legs to a pole and telling him to run
He thought and he thought until his head spun
Feeling like he went to a theme park
Which was in fact one of his least favorite places
Then, after time digging
An epiphany
A revelation that took hours,
days,
months,
and even years to discover
Game after game,
season after season
Time and time again until he found it out
He didn't have to change who he was
That indeed would be impossible
He just needed to change his mindset
He could keep his tenacity, ferocity and intensity
He figured out he could do all of these things and still accept failure
He could still have that scrappy terrier inside of him
He just needed to mix in a little golden retriever
It was about putting in 100% and then letting go
Like a mother to her growing child
Like a growing child to his outdated lego set
And he let it go
He was told to accept failure;
he was told to be satisfied with an imperfect result
What they didn't understand was that it was impossible
This tenacity, ferocity, intensity and stubbornness was in his blood:
Injected like a permanent poison
He was a boy full of passion,
full of energy and commitment
But when it came down to that one positive,
he could not let go
He clung on to it like a mother to her newborn child
Or a child to his new lego set
This feedback seemed impossible to listen to
How could he change human nature
It seemed insurmountable and unsolvable
Like rocket science
Like they were chaining his legs to a pole and telling him to run
He thought and he thought until his head spun
Feeling like he went to a theme park
Which was in fact one of his least favorite places
Then, after time digging
An epiphany
A revelation that took hours,
days,
months,
and even years to discover
Game after game,
season after season
Time and time again until he found it out
He didn't have to change who he was
That indeed would be impossible
He just needed to change his mindset
He could keep his tenacity, ferocity and intensity
He figured out he could do all of these things and still accept failure
He could still have that scrappy terrier inside of him
He just needed to mix in a little golden retriever
It was about putting in 100% and then letting go
Like a mother to her growing child
Like a growing child to his outdated lego set
And he let it go
