Poetry Project!
Artest Statement
It may take you by surprise to know my poem “The Walkers” is not an anti-religion poem what so ever. It is meant to be about the adventure of self discovery, or in other words “finding peace in experience.” Weather discovering your peace is in the experience of filling the environment around you with kindness and empathy, while using your religion as an inspiration. Or, in experiencing things on this earth that was created from peace in nature. My poem “The Walkers” is about how it does not matter the way peace is created, as long as the outcome of your passion is peace.
“The walkers will never know” is a frequent reoccurring line in my poem that takes the shape of someone\something personal to the reader, I left it open to my listeners to interpret the “walkers” as who ever they please. Because I wrote my poem in my point of view, my poem is written in a way that is meant to seem as if I am speaking to an audience. Because of this, I am going to present my poem in a spoken word type style with lots of big hand movements and gestures. For a visual, I will be creating a painting that has no words so it can be interpreted as the listeners\viewers please. It will be a version of my poem that is structurally visual and will be displayed in front of me as I perform my poem. One main theme in my poem is how mankind defiles the reason for religion, which is for meant to be for peace. The reason I focused on Christianity is because it is the most dominant religion in our society, even the country we live in considers itself to be a “Christen based country.” A quote from my poem that directually shows this is “They (referring to the walkers) will never know the only way to except religion is to know it as an outlet for peace” This quote refers to the population of people in the world who believe their form of “peace” is superior to another, this action results in conflict, which subtracts the meaning of their religions purpose, peace. Another main theme of my poem is how people don’t see the beauty in nature because we are too concerned with how much of a resource it can make for mankind. One quote that really highlights this is “They will never know how to watch the trees grow, with the branches stretching toward the sky inching higher and higher with leaves for nerve endings and flower buds for eyes,
They will never know because all they can do in the presence of a tree is imagine what color cabinets they would make in their cookie cutter suburban house,
Or how well it would burn in the fire.” In my eyes, this refers to the people who “fill their hearts” with materialistic ordeals that contributed to the superficial movement are society is suffering from. The walkers ignorance (toward nature) is their bliss. Both of these themes were introduced to me when I read the book “Buddha’s Brain,” which never fead me my opinions, I created them off of the authors words “The untimit goal of the universe is to have every person here is To assume themselves as peaceful. Find your way to express peace in the form of passion.” (Hanson) I have found my passion that expresses peace, and that is directually shown in my poem. I wrote my poem to highlight the purpose of all forms of spirituality and passions, which is (should be) peace. In other words, if one fallows their passion through life and their passion fulfils them, that fulfillment will ultimately make them a better person. The action of one bettering themselves will not only fill their hearts in a spiritual and grounding way, but this action will better the environment around them. Or, in other worlds better yourself to better the world.
“The walkers will never know” is a frequent reoccurring line in my poem that takes the shape of someone\something personal to the reader, I left it open to my listeners to interpret the “walkers” as who ever they please. Because I wrote my poem in my point of view, my poem is written in a way that is meant to seem as if I am speaking to an audience. Because of this, I am going to present my poem in a spoken word type style with lots of big hand movements and gestures. For a visual, I will be creating a painting that has no words so it can be interpreted as the listeners\viewers please. It will be a version of my poem that is structurally visual and will be displayed in front of me as I perform my poem. One main theme in my poem is how mankind defiles the reason for religion, which is for meant to be for peace. The reason I focused on Christianity is because it is the most dominant religion in our society, even the country we live in considers itself to be a “Christen based country.” A quote from my poem that directually shows this is “They (referring to the walkers) will never know the only way to except religion is to know it as an outlet for peace” This quote refers to the population of people in the world who believe their form of “peace” is superior to another, this action results in conflict, which subtracts the meaning of their religions purpose, peace. Another main theme of my poem is how people don’t see the beauty in nature because we are too concerned with how much of a resource it can make for mankind. One quote that really highlights this is “They will never know how to watch the trees grow, with the branches stretching toward the sky inching higher and higher with leaves for nerve endings and flower buds for eyes,
They will never know because all they can do in the presence of a tree is imagine what color cabinets they would make in their cookie cutter suburban house,
Or how well it would burn in the fire.” In my eyes, this refers to the people who “fill their hearts” with materialistic ordeals that contributed to the superficial movement are society is suffering from. The walkers ignorance (toward nature) is their bliss. Both of these themes were introduced to me when I read the book “Buddha’s Brain,” which never fead me my opinions, I created them off of the authors words “The untimit goal of the universe is to have every person here is To assume themselves as peaceful. Find your way to express peace in the form of passion.” (Hanson) I have found my passion that expresses peace, and that is directually shown in my poem. I wrote my poem to highlight the purpose of all forms of spirituality and passions, which is (should be) peace. In other words, if one fallows their passion through life and their passion fulfils them, that fulfillment will ultimately make them a better person. The action of one bettering themselves will not only fill their hearts in a spiritual and grounding way, but this action will better the environment around them. Or, in other worlds better yourself to better the world.
My Poem
They walk weary to the beat of a broken drum,
Searching for worth in a land under a foreign sun,
In their arms they carry billboards thrusted toward the sky asking some unseen creator for a an unknown thing called peace,
Their empire of businessmen and corporate coos of bias money deals do not have any space for peace,
Oh no,
They will never learn,
They will never know
Peaces strategy is to confront that empire,
To siege it,
To shame it,
With its brilliance and joy,
With the sheer spurning of conflict,
They will never know the only way to except religion is to understand it is an outlet for undying peace,
Never the head of a rifle,
Nor the sharp words of an oppressing language that no form of peace speaks,
For the walkers have sharpened,
Yet unrefined,
Tongues,
The collateral cause and effect of this unspoken flaw curses the walkers to never find peace with fingertips pointing towards the heavens,
Head bowed,
Muttering some harshly spoken passage under warm breath trying to find the meaning of experiences that show you the truth,
Some currently defiled words of pages they are so desperately trying to swallow,
But they cannot, it’s far too big to fit down crucified sarcophaguses,
They just don’t know that the existence of propaganda messages,
Fads that curve our choices,
And the lies of glorified soldiers,
Are far too big to fit down the swollen throats of the walkers,
So they try to pull it out with cursed fingers that take the form of a head of a gun,
But, maybe,
Just maybe,
The gun is in somebody else’s mouth,
My dear friends,
The walkers will never know,
They will never know the only way to navigate life, is to use no map,
They will never know the world “always” means “never” for someone else,
They will never learn that peace is found in the understanding that you do not have every key to every lock, but you still feel the drive to open every door,
They will never know the only way to deal with the monsters of their past is to make peace with them, because someday they will sneak up behind you and
Bite you in the ass.
They will never know peace is the moment that fills you up inside like a free fall though an orphic canyon somewhere in the west,
They will never know the only way to find peace is in the essence of experience,
My dear friends,
They will never know that peace means having the ability to roll in the riches all around you without wandering what they are worth,
My dear friends they will never know that the gold they pull from underground to make cars go faster,
To make the world around them blur linking together loops on tracks trying to forget they are making the world hell for someone in the East,
To make white men more money only to loose it so they can drive drills into the earth digging for more problems,
They will never acknowledge that the thing that is making racecars race is the remains of something that once lived,
Something once experienced,
Something that had the instinct to be alive,
Now, that is something humans think is exclusive to humans,
My dear friends, they will never know,
That peace has the eyes of the observer but the heart of the experience,
They will never know how to bring their focus down from below god’s feet to their own hearts,
Away from the now defiled pages of the bible to the thrill of passion,
Away from newly poised holy water supply to galaxies filled with science and different shapes of spirituality that proves nothing to them but insult even though the truth lies within the abstract lines of constellations and equality to all things alive…
Like trees,
They will never know how to watch the trees grow, with the branches stretching toward the sky inching higher and higher with leaves for nerve endings and flower buds for eyes,
They will never know because all they can do to experience different forms of life is imagine what color cabinets they would make in their cookie cutter suburban house,
Or how well it would burn in the fire,
Or how it would feel as paper under fingertips with the words “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” printed in passage form,
The deliberate snip of a flower bud,
My dear friends, the walkers peruse the death of nature and beauty for human luxury once again,
Little do they know this is the root to problems political, personal, and the cause of eliminating… someone else’s perfection,
It is the start to all of our war,
They will never know that just because something is chemical, proven, or can be seen under the microscope of the third eye does not make the existence of man any less extraordinary,
My friends, the walkers will never know,
Peace is bigger then can be described in the twisting words of a poet,
It is something you will never find in the dark corners of a cathedral your mother once shushed you in,
Or in the process filling that hole in your heart with the materials money can bye or make that marks the deathbed of somebody’s father,
They will never know how great teachers like the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, nature, and experiance all majored in the creation of sculpting peace,
They will never know that peace is in the pure expectance of self-love,
Self flaws,
Self-awareness,
They will never know it is the pure acceptance of perfection is in the eyes of the beholder,
My dear friends,
The walkers will never know,
What peace is…
Are
you
a
walker?
Searching for worth in a land under a foreign sun,
In their arms they carry billboards thrusted toward the sky asking some unseen creator for a an unknown thing called peace,
Their empire of businessmen and corporate coos of bias money deals do not have any space for peace,
Oh no,
They will never learn,
They will never know
Peaces strategy is to confront that empire,
To siege it,
To shame it,
With its brilliance and joy,
With the sheer spurning of conflict,
They will never know the only way to except religion is to understand it is an outlet for undying peace,
Never the head of a rifle,
Nor the sharp words of an oppressing language that no form of peace speaks,
For the walkers have sharpened,
Yet unrefined,
Tongues,
The collateral cause and effect of this unspoken flaw curses the walkers to never find peace with fingertips pointing towards the heavens,
Head bowed,
Muttering some harshly spoken passage under warm breath trying to find the meaning of experiences that show you the truth,
Some currently defiled words of pages they are so desperately trying to swallow,
But they cannot, it’s far too big to fit down crucified sarcophaguses,
They just don’t know that the existence of propaganda messages,
Fads that curve our choices,
And the lies of glorified soldiers,
Are far too big to fit down the swollen throats of the walkers,
So they try to pull it out with cursed fingers that take the form of a head of a gun,
But, maybe,
Just maybe,
The gun is in somebody else’s mouth,
My dear friends,
The walkers will never know,
They will never know the only way to navigate life, is to use no map,
They will never know the world “always” means “never” for someone else,
They will never learn that peace is found in the understanding that you do not have every key to every lock, but you still feel the drive to open every door,
They will never know the only way to deal with the monsters of their past is to make peace with them, because someday they will sneak up behind you and
Bite you in the ass.
They will never know peace is the moment that fills you up inside like a free fall though an orphic canyon somewhere in the west,
They will never know the only way to find peace is in the essence of experience,
My dear friends,
They will never know that peace means having the ability to roll in the riches all around you without wandering what they are worth,
My dear friends they will never know that the gold they pull from underground to make cars go faster,
To make the world around them blur linking together loops on tracks trying to forget they are making the world hell for someone in the East,
To make white men more money only to loose it so they can drive drills into the earth digging for more problems,
They will never acknowledge that the thing that is making racecars race is the remains of something that once lived,
Something once experienced,
Something that had the instinct to be alive,
Now, that is something humans think is exclusive to humans,
My dear friends, they will never know,
That peace has the eyes of the observer but the heart of the experience,
They will never know how to bring their focus down from below god’s feet to their own hearts,
Away from the now defiled pages of the bible to the thrill of passion,
Away from newly poised holy water supply to galaxies filled with science and different shapes of spirituality that proves nothing to them but insult even though the truth lies within the abstract lines of constellations and equality to all things alive…
Like trees,
They will never know how to watch the trees grow, with the branches stretching toward the sky inching higher and higher with leaves for nerve endings and flower buds for eyes,
They will never know because all they can do to experience different forms of life is imagine what color cabinets they would make in their cookie cutter suburban house,
Or how well it would burn in the fire,
Or how it would feel as paper under fingertips with the words “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” printed in passage form,
The deliberate snip of a flower bud,
My dear friends, the walkers peruse the death of nature and beauty for human luxury once again,
Little do they know this is the root to problems political, personal, and the cause of eliminating… someone else’s perfection,
It is the start to all of our war,
They will never know that just because something is chemical, proven, or can be seen under the microscope of the third eye does not make the existence of man any less extraordinary,
My friends, the walkers will never know,
Peace is bigger then can be described in the twisting words of a poet,
It is something you will never find in the dark corners of a cathedral your mother once shushed you in,
Or in the process filling that hole in your heart with the materials money can bye or make that marks the deathbed of somebody’s father,
They will never know how great teachers like the Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, nature, and experiance all majored in the creation of sculpting peace,
They will never know that peace is in the pure expectance of self-love,
Self flaws,
Self-awareness,
They will never know it is the pure acceptance of perfection is in the eyes of the beholder,
My dear friends,
The walkers will never know,
What peace is…
Are
you
a
walker?
Poetry Growth
The perspective of my poem shifted in sophistication by expressing that the theme of my poem is not anti-religion, it is pro-peace. One example of this is when I decided to introduce that the stance my poem holds on religion is “as an outlet for peace never the head of a rifle.” In my earlier drafts I introduced that theme after I would have some degrading lines about religion, when in my eyes, the only degrading thing I was aiming to say on religion is that it is often used as an outlet for violence. This shift helped the prospective of religion become clear.
One important change I made to my poem “The Walkers” was to not identify who the “walkers’ are. In my first drafts I always felt myself trying to incorporate the identity of the walkers by saying they are the people who “do this” or “do that.” I changed my poem by making the choice to have the inanity of the “walkers” unknown by changing when I said, “do this” and “do that” to “they will never know how to do this or do that.” I also ended my poem with a cliff hanging type line that says, “Are you a walker.” I felt it needed a change because it was not displaying what I wanted it to and it was a lot of showing and not very much telling. I think that this change improves my poem by provoking the thoughts of wandering who these walkers are. This made me grow as a poet by making me apply my skills of showing and not telling into different forms of writing besides essay type writing.
Another change I made to improve my poem was to add in more about my views on how humans don’t acknowledge nature for anything more then a resource. In the early drafts of my poem I felt my poem was not going in the direction I wanted it to,
I felt I was leaving out a big portion of my “passion” when it comes to finding peace, which is acknowledging and respecting nature. I made this change by adding in a whole stanza that says “They will never know that peace means having the ability to roll in the riches all around you without wandering what they are worth, my dear friends they will never know that the gold they pull from underground to make cars go faster, to make the world around them blur linking together loops on tracks trying to forget they are making the world hell for someone in the East,
to make white men more money only to loose it so they can drive drills into the earth digging for more problems, they will never acknowledge that the thing that is making race cars race is the remains of something that once lived, something once experienced, something that had the instinct to be alive, now, that is something humans think is exclusive to humans.” This change improves my poem by wandering away from the topics of religion but still talks about what we need to change to achieve peace. This change made me grow as a poet by finding other ways to express the topic of writing (in this case it was finding peace) in other ways then what is already on the paper.
An additional important change I made to my poem to make the final draft express what it does was incorporating more turn. In the early drafts of my poem I found my poems tone was rather monotone because of the lack of “potent” lines. One example of this is when I wrote in the line “It is the start to all of our war.” This line changes in tone by sounding very dark yet powerful. I feel this makes my poem more piercing and beautiful by changing the rather peaceful tone of my poem to grab my listeners by the ear and make them experience something powerful. This made me grow as a poet by showing me it is okay to have something that sounds a little random at first, but then it ties in strongly to the main theme of my poem.
One important change I made to my poem “The Walkers” was to not identify who the “walkers’ are. In my first drafts I always felt myself trying to incorporate the identity of the walkers by saying they are the people who “do this” or “do that.” I changed my poem by making the choice to have the inanity of the “walkers” unknown by changing when I said, “do this” and “do that” to “they will never know how to do this or do that.” I also ended my poem with a cliff hanging type line that says, “Are you a walker.” I felt it needed a change because it was not displaying what I wanted it to and it was a lot of showing and not very much telling. I think that this change improves my poem by provoking the thoughts of wandering who these walkers are. This made me grow as a poet by making me apply my skills of showing and not telling into different forms of writing besides essay type writing.
Another change I made to improve my poem was to add in more about my views on how humans don’t acknowledge nature for anything more then a resource. In the early drafts of my poem I felt my poem was not going in the direction I wanted it to,
I felt I was leaving out a big portion of my “passion” when it comes to finding peace, which is acknowledging and respecting nature. I made this change by adding in a whole stanza that says “They will never know that peace means having the ability to roll in the riches all around you without wandering what they are worth, my dear friends they will never know that the gold they pull from underground to make cars go faster, to make the world around them blur linking together loops on tracks trying to forget they are making the world hell for someone in the East,
to make white men more money only to loose it so they can drive drills into the earth digging for more problems, they will never acknowledge that the thing that is making race cars race is the remains of something that once lived, something once experienced, something that had the instinct to be alive, now, that is something humans think is exclusive to humans.” This change improves my poem by wandering away from the topics of religion but still talks about what we need to change to achieve peace. This change made me grow as a poet by finding other ways to express the topic of writing (in this case it was finding peace) in other ways then what is already on the paper.
An additional important change I made to my poem to make the final draft express what it does was incorporating more turn. In the early drafts of my poem I found my poems tone was rather monotone because of the lack of “potent” lines. One example of this is when I wrote in the line “It is the start to all of our war.” This line changes in tone by sounding very dark yet powerful. I feel this makes my poem more piercing and beautiful by changing the rather peaceful tone of my poem to grab my listeners by the ear and make them experience something powerful. This made me grow as a poet by showing me it is okay to have something that sounds a little random at first, but then it ties in strongly to the main theme of my poem.