Spoken Word Updates!

So a few updates on how spoken word is going. I'm part of a group on campus called Teeth http://www.teethpoets.com/Members.html (I'll be up there soon!), which is quite exciting. Yale has many, many incredible spoken word poets and it's been a pleasure to watch them perform and learn from them. A couple of spoken word groups also worked together to bring in a very talented professional poet, Shihan, to campus today, and his performance was AMAZING. You can check out one of his poems at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LusRcLdvDgc. I figure I also owe you guys a poem, but I can't quite show you a new one I'm working on, because it's really not ready, but here's a significantly edited version of an earlier poem (well, a significant addition was added). It's called ingratiating for gratitude.

I’ve never been ravished by foreclosure before
And I in no way mean to make light of the plight
But I can’t help imagining the angle between my actions and foreclose runs 180 degrees
Parallel.
Because while my announcement is not white wood with a flap swinging in the breeze
Sharp point planted in the grass, so seemingly mundane
But Bank Name seared into the hanging plane
My signs are no less vivid nor clashing.
I too, am desperate to unload to any reasonable buyer
An artificially low outcome doesn’t seem too dour
I’m constantly putting myself up for auction
I just want to regain somethin’
My foreclosure though wasn’t caused by a contracting economy that’s appalling
A loss of work, or income that that was free-falling
My foreclosure was the result of adding another job
You see Currently
I’m selling out.
Which is funny cuz there’s not even money
But I assure you
I’m selling out
And I’m looking for an out
[…]
Split and sautéed in a sauce that’s pooled
But I still expect my auto ten percent gratuity
Cuz this, this must be a large enough party
And im hoping you like me even more
Cash in another ten percent at the door
But then here’s how the evening was usurped
See, you’re ticked off wish you were in Europe
Where the only things that are tips, are the extremity of an object
And I, I’m wishing I was working on a new project
Because speaking of objects, there’s more than that I’d like to see
See, I’m still just a waiter
But I’ve waited far too long for this obsession to abate
So I don’t mean to hate,
But I strongly dislike
I’d like for it to take a hike
This predilection where I’m constantly estimating if I’m liked
So no, I don’t have a resume or an alternate frame of view
But I assure you, I’m looking for something new.
Because I know if I can shed this current work.
My progressively mortgaged me can be regained
The judge ruling this foreclosure was just insane.

Prof. Earth

What up world. I know you have a ton of students, and I don't really have any specific questions at this moment, but I figured I'd take this time during your informal office hours to formally introduce myself. Hopefully, I'll get to know you a lot better over the next few years, and you can get to know me better too.

Short Spoken Word

(SEM Microscope. Image from: http://rsic.puchd.ac.in/images/image002.jpg).

It's about being short. But it's my longest one yet. What up! (It's longer not as much because I have more to say, but because I want to start making my spoken words a little longer). I'll try to have a video of it being performed on facebook soon, and I'll also soon hopefully make a post about some of my thoughts and experiences since I started college (briefly: I am trying out for two spoken word groups, one tomorrow and one saturday!), but for now just this spoken word.

Five Foot Five

Part 1: Me
To the metric system
Or I suppose it’s just the American
Us and our unilateral action
But to whatever measurements system we use
I stand 5 foot five inches
And that’s short.
Naturally you might be asking
Do I have a Napolen Complex?
So I respond, no.
No, I don’t have a Napolen Complex.
(Although if I did, I probably wouldn’t tell you.
But no I don’t.
In fact my whole life I have and will work tirelessly trying to fail everything to prove I don’t have a Napolen complex.
Just kidding.
So here’s the truth
I don’t have a Napolen complex)
In fact I have a nothingness complex
Not no complex, but nothingness
Cuz you see to myself sometimes I seem microscopic, nanoscopic,
I sell myself short
In exchange for an expanse
Of excuses and pity
But here’s the thing
The rates on excuses and self-pity
Just crashed, and their value is vacuity
As evaluated by the international board on being real.
The new value of the old set equates
To Empty emotional space
perhaps even debt
What I’m trying to say
Is it’s not something I want.
It’s not something I value,
or that has value.
And I know I’m about to make things a lil distended
On The Microeconomics lecture I just attended
But the opportunity cost for standing up full 5’5’’
Is Nill.
Do ya feel?
Other than the activation energy required
To break the self-conscious chains acquired
There is no cost of self-confidence
Only the exothermic enjoyment
Like I was oxygen, and here’s my breath of fresh air.
There is a reason for you to talk to me
like there is a reason for me to talk to you.
To learn, to laugh, to ‘shoot the shit.’
I am five foot five. I am right here.
And This poem, is my homogenous catalyst
This poem, is meant to fill the cyst
Of my fragile willingness to engage.
So in the adapted words of Bon Qui Qui
security..it’s time for this cyst to go.


Part 2: Others
Because here’s the worst part
Of my diffidence
Its like bad vector transformation
It’s one thing to inflict myself
But then I map my own insecurities on you
So 1. You now also need an SEM microscope
Or at least huge ass binoculuars to cope
And have the ability to perceive me
And 2.
I’m embarrassed to say this truly
But your value is adjusted retributively
To the physical appearance of you I see
But I’m tired of making you the judge of me
More so, me the defensive, vapid judge of you.
And it’s time to end this corrupting view.
The cessation only requires proper functioning
Of that inner strength of confidence.




So therefore. Part 3: Conclusion.
I am five’ foot five, readily in sight.
Hello, my name is David, it’s a pleasure to meet you all here tonight

~DKSays

Perspective

Perspective is a fascinating phenomena. Outside of an academic setting (like college :O), outside of the physical sciences there is very little 'fact'-- but there is a lot of room for perspective to maneuver.

I've written in the past on both sides of the spectrum: in middle school I believe I wrote a poem comparing perspective to a very tall mountain, Everest if you will, from which the view is unparalleled, edifying--but at which elevation it is impossible to dwell forever. Your perspective simply can not always dwell at the loftiest levels of insight--sometimes it has to climb down a bit. Just like in a book, conflict is an inherent part of life. Maybe it is genetically ingrained with the purpose of continually having us problem-solve--without problems you can't solve--or maybe it is something else. But conflict is an inevitable and even necessary part of life. And a perspective too high would preclude conflict.



At the same time, there is a very fine line between conflict and drama--between truly concerning conflict and problems begot from a gross descent into non-perspective. Even genuine conflict, wherever that barometer may lie, can certainly be overwhelming, confusing, and distorting at high and/or frequent doses. I've written with vehemence (or attempted vehemence) about my desire to raise my usual level of perspective-to stop dwelling on the petty problems that distract me from the true conflicts that are on the horizon (see way previous post: spoken word script 3).

Tonight I seek to be a true moderate, I do not intend to promote a side or caution against a side. I simply seek to note and appreciate how truly refreshing it is to have those moments when your perspective is deepened. Like a reset button on your problems, those issues that have been torturing you for the recent past just seem to lose their edge or flit away entirely into the realm of insignificance. The only appropriate image I can conjure for how amazing it feels is those old sprite commercials where someone would take a sip and then go "Ahhhh." I've never felt those emotions those actors seem to portray sipping soda, but I certainly feel them sipping on perspective.

Ahhh.

About Me

I'm going to try one of those facebook like notes that help you delineate who you are. But here's the catch: I'm going to put it on my blog instead of facebook. Ohhh yeah, that's right. I think the form is 20 things about me, so here it goes.

1. I have neither a favorite color nor number. I guess I wasn't into favorites in kindgerarten or preschool when I learned about colors and numbers, and I haven't really chosen one since.

2. I'm a yankees fan

3. See above.

4. I own literally (I've counted) five times more merchandise with a Stanford logo than merchandise with a Yale logo.

5. I don't remember the last time music and/or a new day failed to cheer me up.

6. I don't like drama (the genre in literature in film I have nothing against, but I mean the histrionics about relatively trivial subjects). Especially when it's drama I create or get consumed in. Be it about personal relationships or class scheduling or food or political polling. In fact I strive to one day be knighted Sir No Drama David, or Sir No Drama Obama the 2nd.

7. If I ever made the MLB (or really any baseball league that palyed at bat music), my at bat music would be "I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for." I believe I would be the only player to have John Mayer for my at-bat music.

8. Speaking of at bat music, you should see the home run trot I came up with in the hypothetical situation I ever hit a home run.

9. I'm prone to an aggrandization of life and thus an underappreciation of the moments that its comprised of.

10. I find it very hard to think of 20 things about myself.

11. I think karaoke is my latent artistic talent.

12. But don't even get me started on dancing. I'll tear up a dance floor. As long as I don't have to do it for more than 3 minutes. My moves kind of run out after that.

13. I am loathe to use sesquipedalians. NAHHH. JK.

14. I very easily run out of things to say. But I also don't really mind moments of silence.

15. I generally prefer non-fiction, but if I'm reading right before sleeping, I want fiction.

16. I have very bad handwriting.

17. I'm leaving for college in 10 days.

18. I am happiest when thinking about things other than myself.

19. No wonder I'm so sad right now.

20. Just kidding! I'm super happy! Because I just successfully completed this post!

Second

The beginning of the spoken word I haven't been able to finish, but hope to one day.

I'm a wanna be
I'm a wanne be good in life
because that alone would suffice.

First Intention

I know "first impression" gets a lot of attention, but "first impression" has a little-discussed relative that is in many respects much more socially influential: first intention. I think that first intention: when you see someone whether you try and hide and shy away, or come right up to meet them, whether you some-what-awkwardly initiate the conversation or eagerly embrace it, is much more influential than that first impression that you get from someone just by looking at them.