Its gotten to that point: Obsession

Recently, my sister Elizabeth showed me some slam poetry/spoken word pieces and I'll let you know, I was hesitant...Slam Poetry? Seriously? But after hearing the first piece, and holding back tears I was hooked! Andrea Gibson is a remarkably talented poet who uses her poetry as a form of activism. Whether or not you agree with her messages, her words are haunting and beautiful and have made me cry and laugh and I have listened over and over again for the past couple of days.

Here are my favorites. I invite you to have an open mind and to expand your view of "poetry" by listening to her art.

"Photograph"


I wish I was a photograph
tucked into the corners of your wallet
I wish I was a photograph
you carried like a future in your back pocket
I wish I was that face you show to strangers
when they ask you where you come from
I wish I was that someone that you come from
every time you get there
and when you get there
I wish I was that someone who got phone calls
and postcards saying
wish you were here
I wish you were here

so wherever you are I hope you're happy
I really do
I hope the stars are kissing your cheeks tonight
I hope you finally found a way to quit smoking
I hope your lungs are open and breathing your life
I hope there's a kite in your hand
that's flying all the way up to orion
and you still got a thousand yards of string to let out
I hope you're smiling
like god is pulling at the corners of your mouth
cause I might be naked and lonely
shaking branches for bones
but I'm still time zones away
from who I was the day before we met
you were the first mile
where my heart broke a sweat
and I wish you were here
I wish you'd never left
but mostly I wish you well
I wish you my very very best

"Say Yes"


this is for the no becoming yes
, for scars becoming breath
, for saying i love you to people who will never say it to us.
 for scraping away the rust and remembering how to shine,
 for the dime you gave away when you didn't have a penny.
 for the many beautiful things we do
, for every song we've ever sung
. for refusing to believe in miracles
 because miracles are the impossible coming true, and everything is possible.

never go a second hushing the percussion of your heart
. play loud
. play like you know the clouds have left too many people cold and broken
 and you're their last chance for sun
. play like there's no time for hoping brighter days will come
, play like the apocalypse is only 4...3...2
 but you have a drum in your chest that could save us
. you have a song like a breath that could raise us, like the sunrise into a dark sky that cries to be blue. play like you know we won't survive if you don't, but we will if you do. play like saturn is on his knees proposing with all of his ten thousand rings that we give every single breath. this is for saying-yes

this is for saying-yes

"I Do" * ps. this is my favorite one.


You would re-write the rhythm of my heartbeat with the way you held me in the morning, resting your head on my chest. I swear my breath turned silver the day your hair did. Like I swore marigolds grew in the folds of my eyelids the first time that I saw you. And they bloomed the first time I watched you dance to the tune of our kitchen kettle in our living room. In a world that could have left us hard as metal we were soft as nostalgia together. For 50 years, we feathered wings too wide to be prey, and we flew through days strong and days as fragile as sand castles at high tide. You would fold your love into an origami firefly and throw it through my passageways till all my hidden chambers were lit with lanterns. Now, every trap door of every pore of my heart is open because of you, because of us. So I do, I do I do.


-- If you want more, Check out "Asking Too Much". I couldn't find a video recording, but here it is from LaLa.com