poet breathe now

this poem, most commonly known as a highlight of the 2010 documentary “Louder than a Bomb” this poem and movie has changed my life for the better every time i watch, experience and listen. to let the poem wash over you, theres a link at the bottom post.

POET BREATHE NOW

By Adam Gottlieb

Everybody’s got something to say about poetry

because rhymes peak in meaning shedding light on our unspeakables

for an ample example

take the other day when i sat not knowing how to write a poem

and assuming i was fruitlessly booming the thin air

I yelled and spat my frustration:

how do I start?

and my dog looks up from her water dish and says

I hate to encroach on your ‘artistic space’

cuz i know you’re like ‘in-the-zone’ or whatever,

but if you really want my advice here it is”

and then my dog says

“poet breathe now –

because it’s the last thing you’ll ever do for yourself.

poet breathe now because there’s a fire inside you that needs oxygen to burn and if you don’t run out of breath you’re gonna run out of time

poet breathe now because once the spot gets packed you gotta save that air for screamin, your –inhalation takes saviorisms to sky-highs

you gotta go with the flowin of your own voice, poet.breathe now because once you spit you won’t even need air you’ll be rockin rhymes respiratory,

you’ll breathe poetry baby.

you breathe now and you’ll never forget that breath

you got —

pulsasive passages passing the mic

and hot hallelujahs when verses you write

and your sin is your savior your song is your life

and your words are like wonders to wandering fifes pipin ceremony:

poets you man, words you wife

and your honeymoon orbits around your love like metronomic metros

keepin time to the heartbeat of your heavenly drums –

poet breathe now because you might have something to say

because peace might depend on your piece

because you breathe and that air might help your brain tell your heart to keep pumping one more cycle and that blood might help your lips form one last word

that hits the audience hard –

because we are all made from the same elements

and we all breathe the same air

so celebrate our mutual recipes of existence

by persisting to stay alive

ducking sageless luckless ages

like intellectual hippies!

when you take a breath

the universe rings out like circular beats –

landing planets are seraphim

storms are spit –

stars are soulcandles!

and you breathe like chest rebounds

even when all hope seems lost

our sounds pound mics

like hope-stars

like “we’re still here” hollas!

we make angels of our nightclubs,

bards of our bums

outlooks of our outcasts

and infinity of our sums,

we are the children of empathy,

the pathos of slums,

we heal like helios

like cyclical drums

we enlist life from listless

and sometimes

even get things done

poet breathe now

because once you start your piece

you can die behind that microphone

and

death may be breathless

but poetry’s deathless

so breath be

our savior

eternal.

poets breathe once with me now

that’s one poem we all wrote.