My find of the day.

I ended up watching this video this morning for about 30 minutes transcribing the whole poem from the performance. The poet, Sarah Kay, speaks quickly and enthusiastically it is a joy, but is also difficult, to try to keep up. Her performance (below) is confident and clear and all of her gestures seem perfect- like she is sitting in front of you in a coffee shop, speaking about something she cares about (her daughter) with a lot of energy. This poem has changed the way that I feel about spoken poetry and oratory in general. She has a good point in her speech following her performance that she doesn't have to use her poetry to accuse the world of what it already knows to be its faults. She can use it to represent her own feelings and personality (and her apparent cheerful optimism), and she can use what she knows to predict what she will know. I thought that her wisdom was as charming as her smile and voice. I was blown away. She's only 22. Amazing. You can watch the video and if you keep scrolling, read the poem.

If I should have a daughter

If I should have a daughter
Instead of mom, she's gonna call me Point B
Because that way she knows that no matter what happens
At least she can always find her way to me

And I'm gonna paint the solar systems
On the backs of her hands
So she has to know the entire universe
Before she can say "Oh I know that like the back of my hand"

And she's gonna learn that this life will hit you hard in the face

Wait for you to get back up Just so it can kick you in the stomach
But getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs

How much they like the taste of air

There is hurt here that cannot be fixed by bandaids or poetry
So the first time she realizes that wonderwoman isn't coming
I'll make sure she knows she doesn't have to wear the cape all by herself
Because no matter how wide you stretch your fingers
Your hands will always be too small to catch all the pain you want to heal
Believe me, I've tried.

And baby, I'll tell her, don't keep your nose up in the air like that
I know that trick, I've done it a million times
You're just smelling for smoke so you can follow the trail back to a burning house
So you can find the boy who lost everything in the fire to see if you can save him
Or else, find the boy who lit the fire in the first place to see if you can change him

But I know she will anyway so instead I will always keep an extra supply of chocolate and rainboots nearby

Because there is no heartbreak that chocolate can't fix.
Okay there's a few heartbreaks that chocolate cant fix but that's what the rainboots are for Because rain will wash away everything if you let it

I want her to look at the world through the underside of a glass bottom boat

To look through a microscope at the galaxies that exist on the pinpoint of a human mind Because that's the way my mom taught me

That there'll be days like this, there'll be days like this

My mama said.

When you open your hands to catch and wind up with only blisters and bruises

When you step out of the phone booth and try to fly

And the very people you want to save are the ones standing on your cape

When your boots will fill with rain and you'll be up to your knees in disappointment

Those are the very days you have all the more reason to say thank you

Because there is nothing more beautiful

Than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline

No matter how many times it's sucked away.

You will put the wind in winsome- lose some

You will put the star in starting over and over

And no matter how many landmines erupt in a minute

Be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life

And yes, on a scale from 1 to overtrusting

I am pretty damn naive.

But I want her to know that this world is made out of sugar

It can crumble so easily

But don't be afraid to stick your tongue out and taste it

Baby, I'll tell her, remember your mama is a worrier and your papa is a warrior

And you are the girl with small hands and big eyes who never stops asking for more

Remember that good things come in 3s and so do bad things

And always apologize when you've done something wrong

But don't you ever apologize for the way your eyes refuse to stop shining

Your voice is small but don't ever stop singing

And when they finally hand you heartache

When they slip war and hatred under your door

And offer you handouts on street corners of cynicism and defeat

You tell them that they really ought to meet your mother.

Poem and performance by Sarah Kay, video taken from TED.com