A novel in verse about a boy who was bullied. *****
I first encountered Shane Koyczan’s work when he presented his poem We Are Moreat the 2010 Winter Olympics at Vancouver. Like so many others, I was enraptured and sought out more of his poetry. At that time all that was available were a few YouTube videos. Since then, Shane has been on many tours and has published three books and a studio album. He is fast, furious, funny, compassionate and human. His ideals are real.
Shane is noted for his poems against bullying and about cancer, illness, loss, and eating disorders. One video of Shane’s anti-bullying poem To This Day(a TED video)has had nearly 1,900,000 views alone. Having said that, the version I like best is below, which has 7,000-plus views but is accompanied by dance and is delightfully artful. Shane’s Amazon page is HERE.
“We so seldom understand each other. But if understanding is neither here nor there, and the universe is infinite, then understand that no matter where we go we will always be smack dab in the middle of nowhere. All we can do is share some piece of ourselves, and hope that it’s remembered. Hope that we meant something to someone” Shane Koyczan
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Both Canada and the United States celebrate April as national poetry month. Since Bardo is an international effort, we will celebrate the month as an international event. Poetry is a shared heritage that knows no borders.
Among the blog posts we’ll publish during this month is a piece by Blaga Todorova (Between the Shadows and the Soul) on the Bulgarian poet and former Bulgarian Vice President, Blaga Dimitrova. Included in our line-up is a memorable poem by New York’s first lady, wife of Mayor Bill De Blasio, Chirlane McCray. There will be a piece on writing poetry by English poet, Myra Schneider (Myra Schneider’s Poetry Website), and an article on the Lebanese poet, Khalil Gibran. Corina Ravenscraft (Dragon’s Dreams) will start us off on April 1 with some ideas for celebrating with family and friends.
While we don’t plan to post poems and/or essays on poetry every day, we’ll do so quite a bit. Also, along with the Academy of American Poets, we’ll celebrate A Poem in Your Pocket on Thursday, April 24, when everyone is invited to share a poem and/or a piece about a favored poet no matter the poet’s time or place. Mister Linky will go up and you can link in your own work or share a URL to work you admire. Or, if you prefer, you can share a poem or comment on a poet in the comment section of that day’s post. Mister Linky will open at 12:01 a.m. on the 24th.
This evening we kick-off poetry month – a day-and-a-half early, yes! – with award-winning Canadian slam poet and writer, Shane Koyczan, who first came to the wider world’s attention with his poem We Ae More at the 2010 Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver. This video begins with Death Be Not Proud by British poet John Donne (1572-1631) and moves into Shane’s performance of one of his early poems, Move Pen Move.
CELEBRATE INTERNATIONAL POETRY MONTH WITH US
“Poets are the unacknowled legislators of the world.” Percy B. Shelley (1792-1822), English Romantic poet, In Defense of Poetry
And don’t forget to join us on Wednesday, April 23, for Victoria Slotto’s Writers’ Fourth Wednesday prompt. Mister Linky will go up for sharing your work at 12:01 a.m. P.S.T. on the 23rd.
Illustration ~ Fan with quatrain poem attributed to Emperor Gaozong of Song (1107-1187), the tenth Chinese emperor of the Song Dynasty, part of the John B. Elliott Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The photograph is by Neutrality and generously released into the public domain.
– The Bardo Group
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It’s been too long since we had a little Shane. Shane Koysczan, that is. He came to our attention at the Winter Olympics in Canada in 2010, where he delivered his poem We Are More and was introduced to the world. Prior to that, in 2000, he became the first Canadian to win the Individual Championship title at the National Poetry Slam. I don’t follow slam closely, but I think he is probably the premier slam poet. If I ever catch my breath and shake this tank of 02, I want to be him. I want to deliver my words with his kind of passion and intelligence.
The victim of bullying himself, he wrote To This Day, which went viral on YouTube after he presented it at TED. Imagine! A poem with almost a million views since it was published in March of this year. All of Shane Koysczan’s poems are marked by the same acute vision, precise language, and depth of emotion. You can find many of them on YouTube. Help yourself. Meanwhile …
Warning: you may find some of his word-play a bit raw.
♥
. . . and thus we begin another week . . .
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Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 