Instructions Behind an Honest Poem | The Odyssey Online
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Instructions Behind an Honest Poem

Because being honest can be so hard on paper.

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Instructions Behind an Honest Poem
Sergio Albiac

1. Start it off with a story. Something completely unrelated on the surface to what you are trying to say. Spill it with interest.

2. Make a funny comment or observation. Something they could relate to– a ladder from the roof of your mouth to their reaching arms below. Let them see that this is not a scary thing.

3. Modulate your voice. Take command of the classical orators, read like you are preaching to a crowd responsible for the construction of temples to a realm of powerful gods and goddesses. If you believe that they are as important as you are, you will not let them down.

4. Falter. Change course because you know where this is headed and they do not.

5. You can cry, you had a good start. Know that this moment is yours.

6. Reveal the chimera that you have been growing into ever since it happened. This poem is not what it started as. Show them your wings, your fangs, the talons that have ripped you open, show them who you are when you’re not pretending to be okay.

7. Realize, even though you wrote this poem before you showed them, that it was never about the story in step one or the comic relief, it is undeniably scary, it is something you could never look at straight in the eyes, it is you trying to find the courage to admit something you wouldn’t let yourself believe in. This is you making it real. This is you coping.

8. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. The rhythm of your heartbeat marches with your words.

9. Acknowledge the hurt. It is the first time you have ever spoken the truth aloud. Let yourself fall to your feet. Feel every nerve shooting off signals. Become aware of what you have just done.

10. End the poem. Even if you don’t feel like it has finished for you, even if the pain is still lodged in the backseat of her car, or the raised fist of your father, or the first plate of food you couldn’t stomach, or last night, when you knew you were going to perform this poem and cried because of it. This will be more real to you than any one of them could imagine. But tonight, you gave them a part of it. You do not have to shoulder this alone.

11. Remember that you own your experiences. That with words, you capture some of their unknowns. You turned them into a reality that you could face, something you could never do when they groveled about in your head.

12. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable with all that you have gone through and all that you have left to say.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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