Introduction: A Spoken Word Poem

I've written a new spoken word poem that focuses on trauma, and how we present ourselves to the outside world.

I’ve spoken before about the importance of honesty in poetry, in being willing to be vulnerable, no matter where that takes you.

But this is easier said than done. It’s not so much about being honest with the reader, but about being honest with yourself, and that can be a traumatic and scary process to truly embrace.

Since launching my YouTube channel, I’ve been focusing a lot on producing spoken word poems in the last few weeks, and there’s something different about writing this kind of poetry. It’s a subtle difference, but writing for the way something sounds when you perform it means you take a slightly different approach, and hearing some of the words I write born into my own voice has been jarring. It’s meant I judge them a little differently, I know if I’m not being totally honest with myself in what I’ve written.

I’ve just finished recording a video for a piece I wrote specifically to be performed, and it forced me to look at how I present myself to the world - how I’m really doing beneath the mask I’ve grown so used to wearing.

The idea for this poem came from thinking about how we introduce ourselves to people, and what that might sound like if we were to be completely and utterly honest, both with them and with ourselves.

The video is below, and I really hope you enjoy it.

Yours,

Blake.

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