"Greatness" an Original Slam Poem
"Greatness" an original slam poem by me, Robin Lin Ryding. This poem started out as a message to the audience before I realized it was really a message to myself from me.
Enjoy.
"Greatness"
By: Robin Lin Ryding
Are you afraid to be great?
Hesitance fills your head like a swollen balloon
You tip-toe over stumbles that have yet to drop under each calculated step and silent footfall
Inside, empty threats bang against the walls of your skull
A distant drummer beats the message you no longer wish to hear - a melody once foreshadowed now plagues with loose warnings - warnings taped to laundry lists of expectations so high you cower under shadows of the man-made mountain your worries have built.
Are you aware of your greatness?
Success looms with the threat of tripping into failure
Forced to entertain a circus of thoughts, you freeze under a spotlight of suspicion so bright, you melt from the heat
Balancing on ropes, arms out, you sway and shake and quake from the added weight of the world you begged to carry upon your shoulders rather than accept help from the audience of outstretched hands waiting to lighten your load.
Hailed with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ at such great heights, there’s no need to look down
No need to see what’s underneath
No need to ignore the potential of what’s waiting at the other end of such unprecedented feats of strength
Ropes that bend under contorted toes cannot hold forever
You quiver, so desperate to deliver, that you’re swallowed into the belly of a beast manifested by the echoes of a future still untouched
But did you know that you are great?
I can sense a solace in your sadness.
Chilled words from long ago stay frozen at your side, an icy reminder of what was and so quickly could be once more.
Your prickled pores act as thorns too sharp to touch
They mask a beauty dried by the myth of brutal winds and sunshine so bright that your skin would soon seer should you seek out its light
Questions haunt your every thought
You’re wrought with the dull ache of wasted time dictating every dreamed dilemma that pulsates through your mind
These fears are not a flame that can simply be blown out.
It engulfs your veins, burns from the inside out, and you wish to move but are hindered by a world so unknown that you’d rather remain cold.
But behind closed eyes, you can paint travels to distant lands on the canvas of your lids
Brush strokes ebb and flow as these imaginings bathe your body in pools of sweet relief
Muscles melt like butter, soaked up like suds to a sponge
The distant hum of silence settles on your shoulders, drifting downward as a gentle snow.
At once, existence is no longer a chore and life ceases to obstruct your visions of grandeur.
For a split second, the cold has forsaken you and you allow this newfound warmth a refuge inside your chest.
Slowly, hope trickles in
It tickles at the skin
Waits eagerly to begin
But there that voice is, yet again
Says that happiness is sin!
You’re too afraid of what has been
Soon the head starts to spin
Because distraught is the lynchpin which holds us together and if it’s pulled, we may unravel into broken pieces scattered by the wind so we’ll never be complete
Always feeling obsolete
I have no power, I am weak
Make it stop, I WANT TO SPEAK!
Because I believe in your greatness.
And I will not listen to those words or measure the breath they take for there is no compass that can point to your worth
You are as valid as wishes bestowed upon the stars
As flocks of birds taking flight
You will soar over valleys, aiming higher than the clouds because no one is destined to remain flightless on broken ground
You are a diamond in the rough and when you say you’re not enough, please believe that you are tough with prowess infallible, forever valuable to long-forgotten ghosts left in the past
This sadness will not last for emotions are but seasons and not reasons to hold yourself a captive prisoner inside this vessel we call ‘home.’
You are greatness personified
A warrior among women, a hero among men
An outstanding human specimen, so I will ask you yet again:
Are you afraid to be great?
Because I am.