Sunday, August 27

Focused on the slam

It's all about the slam for me right now. I'm not going to train this week. As I've written, my foot is somewhat injured and I know I must take some time off.

But it's time to shift gears and focus on the slam. I've typed in the one poem that fits best with them theme of this blog. I've typed up drafts of two other poems, but but some competitor could just google the words Well Fed Head slam and happen upon my stuff. And I've got to have some surprises, right?

But I have a good idea who my regular readers are. If you want to hear my other two poems, "Wake up" and "Complete the equation" before the slam is over, send me an e-mail.

Otherwise, I'll post those poems after the slam on Thursday and I'll let you know how it all turned out. Hopefully I will get to the final round this time. I don't want to focus too much on winning, but I do want to win.

OK, here's an edited version of my poem that I'm planning for round two.
---update ---
this post is being constantly edited to make this poem as good as it can possibly be.

So, the marathon is tomorrow, he said.
Well, don't kill yourself, he said.
Don't
kill
yourself.

You crazy runner, are you in over your head?

I reject this negativity but it keeps coming.

Don't kill yourself.
Are you really ready for this?
Confident you can do it?
Well, are ya?

Am I?

I trained for months upon months,
miles on top of miles
up hills and down mountains.
I ran in the rain and in the freezing cold.
While he was sleeping in his four-poster bed
I ran from darkness to light.
I ran so far I got lost
and I kept going
and I lost 50 pounds
and I got found
and I lost some old baggage
and I found my way home
and I kept going and going and going.

And he had the nerve to say something stupid
and discouraging.
Well, don't kill yourself.
As if I cared for bad advice.

I can't kill myself
if I don't let Death catch up to me.

But Death doesn't scare me any more.
Death doesn't have anything to do with this.
Pain? I'm ready for the pain.
I will dance madly with pain in the rain until we're both
soaked and dizzy and amazed that we remain on our feet.
Pain reminds me that I am alive, I can feel,
I can dream, I can overcome and I transcend.
I can run forever like a tantric master lost in the moment,
found in the moment, lost in a moment
founded on the foundation of momentum that
you think is crazy but happily
I shout that insanity makes life interesting.
Insanity inspires the artists to dance along the mountain's ridge.
This desire to run wells up inside me from a fountain
of blood and sweat
so do not tell me not to kill myself.

Because
I believe death is not the end of the story.
I believe death is not the worst outcome.
I believe we see resurrections everyday.

And sometime between the time that gun goes off and
I step across the finish line,
I will be empty of everything
except the fire
fueling my desire
to keep on going
keep on running
keep on keeping on
until I finish strong.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good stuff. I think the editing definitely made it stronger. You kept the parts that worked and tightened up the parts that didn't flow as well. The running "from darkness to light" made me smile. Some of my all-time favorite training runs started before dawn. "Danc[ing] madly with pain in the rain" is another line that grabbed me. There has been plenty of that for me too.

I really like the repetition of the short phrases that evoke the rhythm of running, and the spiritual significance of some of the lines is a somewhat unexpected surprise.

I'd have to hear it performed to really give it a detailed score, but I'll try to give it a score based just on the text. Writing as a marathoner myself but only a poet by proxy, I'd say it gets a 7-1/2 to 8; up from a 5-1/2 to 6 for the previous version. In my opinion, the biggest strength is how well it captures what goes on inside the heart and mind and soul of a marathoner. I'm looking forward to hearing how it is received tomorrow.

August 31, 2006 12:00 am  

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