"koyczan" poems
*"I remember how my grandmother tried to explain our world to me-
She told me a story
She said the ground and the sky, they love each other
But they don’t have arms
So rain; that’s just how they hold one another.
I began to see how the earth and sky need each other.
But I wondered about us.
In this perfect design, where do we fit?
Which piece of the puzzle are we?"*
-Shane Koyczan
Feb 25, 2016
Feb 25, 2016 at 11:30 PM UTC
Look
men made a habit
out of wanting her
see
men like blondes
men like curves
men like ***
some men
want it all
because I guess all men
want to date
actresses
Norma Jean
little girl
never had a home
passed around like nothing
never had a home
and was passed door to door
abandoned
because her mother
lost her marbles
a girl
who was only wanted by men
since childhood
Norma Jean
she heard
a chorus of lies
every time someone
called her name
and she was not good enough
so she dyed her hair
not good enough
so she changed her name
not good enough
so she became an object
and when she could act no more
when she looked into the mirror
and couldn't see herself looking back
it was
not good enough
Marilyn
a star
with the most useful tool
looks
but couldn't focus the little things
so three men left
instead she focused on the audiences clapping
focused on the people loving her
focused on the men in the front row whispering
Marilyn
as they let her beauty
invade their souls
like a main street ballyhoo
playing praise to her
not knowing
each note was bittersweet
making her feel elated
and crushed
crushed beneath the chains
holding her too strongly to her past
behind every compliment
she felt his wandering hands
the hands of a man
an orphan was supposed to call
father
or the hands of a boy
the boy she was supposed to call brother
because her whole life she was only wanted for one thing
and the men in the crowds only echoed
what she had known all along
that she was
not good enough
so she dyed her hair
not good enough
so she changed her name
not good enough
so she became their object
not good enough
so they mocked the woman
who only aimed to please
calling out to her
holding her up
not knowing she would
fall
see
the depressed have an intimacy with death
it’s there in their dreams
but sticks around for their nightmares
and the fans turned to one another
trying to determine
the distance between joy and sorrow
not realizing that depression
can push the distance
making the tallest mountains
look like ant hills
creating decrescendos so soft
they fade out of existence
and for a moment
it felt like the entire universe
had begun to cry
distance must be an illusion
the woman can’t be
dead
Marilyn
her life taken
transforming the way people think
about emotions
and for an instant
it was like sadness
was a tangible thing
like you could reach out
and feel it
like for the first time
you could see happiness and sadness tango
in a dance so slow and delicate
that we finally understood
the history was so important
to know the woman
all we ever had to do was
look.
Nov 20, 2013
Nov 20, 2013 at 10:06 AM UTC
I don't know how I can relate this to all of you,
but you guys have really been pulling me through.
Yeah, you. The one reading this.
You're support, to me, is like water over scorched earth.
My hearth can be without fire, but your praise keeps me warm.
This is what I want to do with my life.
I want to make you smile
and if I know that I've done that
than I can find an extra mile within myself.
Thank you, my friends.
All 15 of you.
I know, I know...
Behind the keyboards and computer screens
you could easily be mexican jumping beans
that grew arms, legs and an appreciation for literature.
But it is always a treasure seeing someone leaving me
any small measure of their day
just to stop and say
"This poem didn't make me *****
It means a lot, guys and girls.
I don't know if I'll ever be famous
like Shane Koyczan or Sarah Kay,
but if I just manage to get this far...
this is good enough for me.
Aug 26, 2014
Aug 26, 2014 at 5:28 PM UTC
*I bury my eyes
in shane koyczan's voice
feel the folds of the syllables
rolling off his tongue
in there a whole world could fall
fit
and burrow in.
I close my eyes
see nothing
but his fireworks
the tornado
the hurricane
the spewing raining lava of his words
as his sentiments color my insides
and paint the soul
of my soul*
I blink
squint
and rub away the clear cut
edges of my box
to finally
properly and openly
see.
Aug 26, 2011
Aug 26, 2011 at 12:46 AM UTC
"And at last,
I no longer have to roam
and I finally understand those
sailors who plant their lips to the ground,
I do the same with your body.
It's because you taste like home."
- Shane Koyczan
when im with you,
the world around me freezes.
a world that
i have not always gotten along with.
a world,
which usually feels like a speeding car
heading directly for me,
catching me like a deer in the headlights.
you feel like coming home
from a long trip
somewhere far away,
where i've been sleeping on a floor,
or maybe
a blow up mattress.
uncomfortable and exhausted.
you are that feeling of climbing into my own bed once again,
finally getting a good nights sleep.
even if i could traverse to the ends of the earth.
i still don't think i would find a better home than right here in your arms.
Aug 6, 2017
Aug 6, 2017 at 2:43 AM UTC
And if you can't see anything
Beautiful about yourself
Get a better mirror
Look a little closer
Stare a little longer!
Because there's something
Inside you that made you
Keep trying despite
Everyone who told you to quit
You built a cast around
Your broken heart,
And you signed it!
You signed it
'They Were Wrong'!
Dec 22, 2013
Dec 22, 2013 at 11:13 PM UTC
If you can't see anything
beautiful about yourself.
GET A BETTER MIRROR
look a little closer
STARE A LITTLE LONGER,
because there's something
inside you that made you
keep trying despite everyone
that told you to quit
-Shane Koyczan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8SdkAgsoM4
Oct 6, 2015
Oct 6, 2015 at 8:52 PM UTC
“I sit before flowers,
hoping they will train me,
in the art of opening up”
— Shane Koyczan
Feb 3, 2014
Feb 3, 2014 at 3:41 PM UTC