I have my own struggles with my perception of time and how old I feel, and it was on that subject when Sean’s poem inspired me to write something. Our styles are very different and I’ve always found his point of view to be incredibly valuable to my editing and evaluation process, but also hard to bring into my writing. I feel like this may be the first piece I’ve written that embodies a lot of what I have learned from Sean, and what I admire most about what sets our writing apart. There are also aspects of this poem that I can tell now that it’s written were influenced by a handfull of people I met at CFSW, including another friend on the 2011 team, Bruce Narbaitz, for its refreshing sense of optimism. So I guess what I’m trying to say is that I know a bunch of really awesome poets and I would like to thank them for inspiring me. Thanks!

Lately
I’ve been feeling like I’m losing track of
– not who – but when I am

See these days I feel more and more like a kid
but I’ve always felt like an old man
like I’ve let time slip through my hands
because I still stop when I see a grasshopper
and I avoid stepping on ants
and I still prefer to ride my bike with no hands
but I am tired…

Like my bones have lived
through a thousand skins before mine
and time is not on my side
Like the blood in my veins
is starting to trickle its way back to the sea
– I’m only twenty-three

I have the rest of my life ahead of me

But my family has shown me that sometimes
we decide that it’s too late to chase after our dreams
They say
that blood is thicker than water
but a tsunami will wipe away an entire city
and rivers carry our boats bearing caskets back to sea
while the ocean remains the planet’s greatest mystery

Our veins are so thin
but our blood is in the rain
so you could say
the rivers are aiming to take us to the same place as our hearts
back to the place where it all starts, this life…

it is full of the taste of longing to belong
and the fear of freedom
like wearing nothing but a fine suede jacket
when all you want is to dance in the rain

So these days
it seems like I live for the road
if only because I have no one to come home to
and no matter where I go
some stranger I barely know
is waiting with open arms
offering a warm embrace
complete with a shoulder for my weary head to lay
just because I do things my own way

I’ve been sold on Disney day-dreams
that told me my nuclear family
was just one slain dragon away
but for every princess
or damsel in distress I have saved
I’ve had to hear a Queen say to my face:
This love… it’s not enough
so I write atom bomb love songs
to try to cleanse myself
but it isn’t working

See as a poet, I lead a double life
I tend to show my strong side
but I know
beneath every accomplishment
lies a foundation of failure and we
have all been broken

We have all known triumph over great loss and tragedy
and in each poem spoken, each painting painted
each motion danced and each song sung
each time we breathe we simultaneously
exhale hope and inhale sorrow
because we know

– we may not understand why we know but we know –

it does not have to be this way
and we can all make a difference

With every utterance we cast stones
into the wishing wells that are held
in the centre of each others eyes
but wishing wells sometimes run dry

we can’t wish a new world into existence
it’s not enough
but we still try
and bit by bit
as people forget how to lie
a change will come
the equation of people
divided against themselves
multiplying rapidly
forced to unite as one
or face countless subtractions

I believe the mathematics of love will prevail

I just haven’t figured out
how I fit into the equation

if the truth is the solution
truth is I’m still trying to find that place
where the floorboards in my mind creak
with the generations of conversation
and door handles in my heart have loosened
so that they are always left open
and every once in awhile
you find something old and covered in dust
that gives you one more piece of the puzzle

and sometimes old friends stop to visit

There are so many beautiful people
that I would like to know
because I think I possess a beauty
I still haven’t learned how to show

So lately
It seems like maybe I live for the road
maybe the one place I can really call

Home

2012

In a year we saw the seeds of discontent find fertile grounds in the minds of the young and old alike, take root in the foundation of our evolution and sprout. So many lives lost, so much corruption exposed, vanquished, empowered. 2012 has come, the beginning is near. The revolution continues.

The Arab spring continues. The Occupy movement continues. The machinery of debt and destruction, of fear and oppression moves on ever-vigilant to remain in the darkness of human consciousness, but this is no longer possible. More and more of us are waking up. More and more of us are realizing how much there is at stake, how much there is to be gained, and how much we have been misguided by our supposed leaders. Political, religious, social, celebrity… Our idols have failed us. The people are recognizing the power is in them, if bit by bit.

What is heralded by so many as the end of times, the apocalypse or the energetic reformatting of the planetary consciousness – if you believe in that sort of thing – is to me an emphatic mark on the passing of time which stands out only to highlight a feature of human nature: Our obsession with our own mortality, paired with our utter terror with the responsibility of living.

If we are to live on this good green Earth for such a finite and minute time in the grand scheme of cosmic history, are we not charged with at least the responsibility to live well? To live in relative peace and harmony, to do good deeds and to leave this place better than when we came, as passing travelers whose footprints through the ether are made as memory to the warmth of each place visited, each being encountered? Why then do we not only travel carelessly wreaking havoc in our path and towing the baggage of millenia of hatred in our wake, but also take solace in the idea of the end times being so near?

We would rather die than face our fears. We would rather the apocalypse come, the mysterious alien overlords take over, the mystery Planet X crash through our atmosphere, the exotic cosmic energy to sweep through our pitiful hearts and minds, than to believe that we ourselves have the capacity to build a new world. No one person has the ability to bring about world peace, only to propose it, to ask for it, to work for it. It is we, The People, together who have the sole responsibility to bring about world peace in a new kind of civilization that is not built on a foundation of deceit and control.

We ask ourselves how it is that these power structures can be dismantled. Perhaps a better question would be how it is that we have tolerated these power structures so long, or how it is that we can go on living without them after becoming so complacent, so subservient, so dependent. Certainly if it is worthwhile to ask the question “How are we going to destroy the systems of oppression?” it is equally worthwhile to ask “How are we going to build a system of liberation?”

Clearly a new world order must come, for the old order is failing. Those of us who live or strive to live outside of its most firm grasp can see it is doing a very good job of destroying itself, while we are struggling to keep up with the demand for alternative societies, livelihoods, housing and communities. It is no longer a question of how we can defeat the new world order. It is a question of whether the new world order will make The People free, or make us slaves.

Now is not the time to build bunkers and buy food provisions. Now is the time to build houses out of our garbage, to plant orchards of fruit and nut trees that will feed our grand-children, to grow the food that will sustain us through cold winters. Now is the time to build the new world for The People, by The People. The systems which oppress and control us are only as powerful as we allow them to be, by giving them our money, our votes, our acceptance. We can provide for ourselves and for each other everything we need to thrive as a civilization. It is only up to us to take the charge.

There will be chaos. There will be death. There will be war. The revolution will be carried out and inspired by the militant defenders of freedom and justice, the non-violent resistance of those carving out a new paradigm, and by the passively complacent.

I will not prepare for the end of the world, but I will prepare for when the supply lines are cut, and the fuel which feeds our grocery stores with foreign fruits runs dry. I will not prepare for the arrival of alien overlords, but I will prepare for the lawyers and corporate entities which will try to take our lands and our liberties. I will not prepare for the illuminati of the new world order, but I will prepare for the battle of declaring one’s sovereignty in a nation built on colonialism. I will not prepare for the eradication of life on Earth, but I will cultivate rich soils and purify water; I will build homes out of the Earth and create jobs for my community; I will make beautiful art that awakens the spirit to its own untapped potential. I will live, and I will love, and I will continue to raise this revolution.

If we don’t, who will?

Tours, festivals, albums, books, shows, learning, loving, building the village… All of these will happen, and I am ready to get to work. Bring on the apocalypse.

To all of those who have been instruments of uplifting praise, constructive criticism, love and life lessons, Thank You. I’ve got your back, too.

P.S. Raising The Revolution 2012 will be on the home page shortly. Watch for it.

Ian is the 2010 world slam champion and member of the 2009 Canadian champion team which went on to become the touring performance poetry troupe, The Recipe. He also works with local multi-talented folk-poet Brad Morden as Atomic Wednesday (who just returned recently from their second european tour) and an Ottawa-based electro-funk-hip-hop-rock band called Daughters of the Revolution.

5. El Amor Mata – Ian Keteku & Balam Santos

This video was released, appropriately, on Valentine’s Day 2011. For me it set a new standard for video poetry. Balam Santos composed and performed the music accompanying Ian’s poem. Balam is a good friend and a gifted guitarist living in Ottawa who I used to train with. He also makes amazing beats and raps like a magical being from another dimension.

“El Amor Mata” by Ian Keteku & Balam S. (Canon EOS 5D Mk II) from Pascal Aka on Vimeo.

4. Nightmares – Ian Keteku

I absolutely love this video. A poem taken from the new album, this video was another holiday release that went up just before Halloween. The cast is mostly friends so again, I am clearly biased, but c’mon, who doesn’t love muppets, reptiles and arachnids on Halloween?

3. Poetry in Motion – Brandon Wint feat. Claude Munson

Brandon Wint is a wonderfully talented Ottawa poet, also a member of the 2009 Canadian slam champion team The Recipe. He has toured across Canada and has recently been devoting his energy to providing workshops for poetry-enthusiasts looking to study the art and improve their craft. This is one of my most favourite poems from him and this video was met with much acclaim, being nominated for a local film festival award shortly after its release. Local master folk artist Claude Munson accompanied him with guitar for this poem, and master video maker Craig Allen Connoly (whose videos have been featured on this blog before) of Partus Films made it all come together.

2. Right Side Up – Ian Keteku feat. Brad Morden, Chloe Perrault & Gabrielle Giguere

There is so much awesomeness in this one video. Brad Morden who makes up the other half of Atomic Wednesday brings in some ukelele while half of the much beloved Boys of Bytown provide some vocal ambience and autoharp. When performed live, I’ve only ever seen Ian do this poem while standing on his head, but this animation is almost as entertaining.

1. The Path – Atomic Wednesday

This is definitely my favourite video poem to have come out this year. Filmed while on their latest european tour, Atomic Wednesday (Ian Keteku and Brad Morden) rather spontaneously put this piece together and a filmmaker they met on the road brought it together in a way that is simple yet profound. The natural beauty really does it for me and there’s a sort of minimalist flavour to it that brings the focus to the words, which are just gorgeous.

Honourable Mentions

Chris Tse – Greatness

You know it’s not really fair to have a top five list in a year when Ian Keteku got an art grant to produce such high quality videos. There are so many poets (and I’m still talking about my biased insulated Ottawa community here) who have been making excellent work out of pocket. One of those poets is Chris Tse, member of the 2010 championship team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. Chris went on to take 2nd at the world slam in 2011 and consistently blows away Ottawa audiences and takes perfect scores at slams for his poetry. He’s created a series of poems with the help of some filmmaker friends which you should definitely check out. He is truly, as you will see, great.

Ahmed Knowmadic – A Single Gunshot

Finally I can get out of my little Ottawa-bubble, at least for a moment. Ahmed is a gifted poet who was a member of the 2011 championship team at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word. He did everything for this video, which is highly impressive alone, not to mention the beauty of the poem itself. This man has a lot of very important things to say and I can tell he is going somewhere with his words. I am really looking forward to getting out to Edmonton and connecting more with the community there after being blown away by the performances I saw at this year’s Canadian festival of spoken word.

That’s it from me. I know I missed a whole bunch of awesome video poems so please, post them in the comments or send me a message to let me know what you saw this year that blew your mind and opened your heart.

Love from Loh

my eyes blur
as if to focus the light
so that your love can be seen
by the world
even when you are not near
and these skins hang limp

lifeless
in neatly folded piles
tucked away in wooden drawers
waiting to adorn your regal nature again
and to dry my eyes
until the time returns

your departure
my solitude
our covenant

Each time we meet
you remember who I am
and I forget you will leave

Some day I will believe
and accept
this will never be easy

5. Lost In The Trees – All Alone in an Empty House

Honestly, I wanted to choose this video, but because it wasn’t a 2011 release I thought I’d go for something else more recent which is the title track to the latest album. Lost In The Trees is a classical-folk group lead by Ari Picker who, when you listen to the full album, you realize is a very talented composer as well as an original folk artist. This video is super strange at times, but I appreciate the creativity brought to a track that is long and complex.

4. My Morning Jacket – Slow Slow Tune (UNSTAGED)

For those of you who know me well, you may be wondering ‘How did your favourite band get placed next to last?’ The answer is that My Morning Jacket, while (arguably) my favourite band thus far in life, has failed to blow me away with their videos. In fact their official videos I find weird, and not necessarily that kind of weird that’s all “Oh these guys are being creative artists” but more that kind of weird that’s “What the fuck?” Also, while they are in my opinion an indisputable power-house live, a lot of their unofficial live videos on youtube are pretty bad.

All you have to do is check out some of the footage from Okonokos, their live album, to realize what a powerhouse of talent this band is. Their last two albums are, in my opinion, absolute gold that pushes their genre and their creativity. They are always growing, which is what I love about them. While I could have chosen an older video of a favourite song, I decided to go with a live recording of one of my favourites from the new album, Circuital.

3. Dr. Dog – I Only Wear Blue

Dr. Dog is one of a few reasons that My Morning Jacket remains arguably my favourite band. They’re two very different sounds but they are both always at or near the top of my playlist. Dr. Dog doesn’t put out nearly enough videos. I don’t even know if this is a single they released or if they just put it together for youtube. I love the way it combines live performance, studio sound and their on-the-road antics. It’s always nice to see the artists I look up to get caught in their natural groove on tour. I always think to myself “That’s what I want to do!”

2. Ian Kamau – The Village

The top two of this list are in another category altogether: Canadians who I have met, who I would consider peers and friends, who are hard-working full-time artists paving the way and inspiring all of us. I look up to these people and admire their creativity, their talent and their success.

Ian Kamau released his album Some Day Soon in November. As soon as I heard it, I was hooked. It has quickly risen to the top of my playlist and become a timeless favourite. It is the one CD I am giving to someone for Christmas because I genuinely think they NEED to hear it from start to finish. I’m going to buy another copy to replace the one I give away, because the digital tracks on my computer are just not enough. Please enjoy this beautiful track, The Village.

Ian Kamau | ‘The Village’ from Marcos Fantu on Vimeo.

1. C.R. Avery – Dungeon of Love

I had almost forgotten about this gem. It did come out in 2011, and in case you forgot too, here it is: my favourite music video of the year. C.R. Avery is a Canadian harmonica-playing beatboxing banjo strumming poetic blues man who has always blown me away with every single performance. He is one of if not THE Canadian artist I look up to most as I try to determine what success in my career looks like. The video is expertly crafted, and the song… Well, you’ll just have to have a listen and figure that part out for yourself.

Honourable Mentions

These are videos that I would have included in this list if they had been more recent. Patrick Watson’s The Great Escape is the most beautiful animated music video EVER. PERIOD. Phosphorescent’s A Picture of our Torn up Praise is something that will always touch me. It’s just a priceless piece of art. My Brightest Diamond’s I Have Never Loved Someone is a 2011 video, but I’m not really familiar with her work. It’s just a song that my son really loves, so it gets a shout out from one parent to another.

Patrick Watson – The Great Escape

Phosphorescent – A Picture of our Torn Up Praise

My Brightest Diamond – I Have Never Loved Someone

Coming up next, top picks of POETRY videos (I can’t do video picks without giving some props to people like Ian Keteku) and maybe some others. Please let me know what you think, make suggestions, comments, criticisms, etc.

Merry Merry from Raising The Revolution

These days it seems like I live for the road
if only because I have no one to come home to,
and no matter where I go
some stranger I barely know
is waiting with open arms
offering a warm embrace
complete with a shoulder for my weary head to lay.

See I never thought it would be this way.
I’ve been sold on Disney day-dreams
that told me my nuclear family
was just one slain dragon away,
but for every princess
or damsel in distress I have saved
I’ve had to hear a Queen say to my face:
This love… it’s not enough
so I write atom bomb love songs
to try to cleanse myself
but it isn’t working

Lately
I’ve been feeling like I’m losing track of
– not who – but when I am.
See these days I feel more and more like a kid
but I’ve always felt like an old man,
like I’ve let time slip through my hands
because I still stop when I see a grasshopper,
and I avoid stepping on ants,
and I still prefer to ride my bike with no hands
but I am tired…

Like my bones have lived
through a thousand skins before mine
and time is not on my side.
Like the blood in my veins
is starting to trickle its way back to the sea
– I’m only twenty-three.

I have the rest of my life ahead of me.

But my family has shown me that sometimes
we decide that it’s too late to chase after our dreams.
They say that blood is thicker than water
but have you ever seen a tsunami
wipe away an entire city
or a river carry a boat bearing a casket back to the sea?

Our veins are so thin
but our blood is in the rain, so you could say,
the rivers are aiming to take us to the same place as our hearts
back to the place where it all starts, this life…
it is full of the taste of longing to belong
and the fear of freedom
like wearing nothing but a suede jacket
when everyone’s dancing in the rain

See as a poet, I lead a double life
I tend to show my strong side
but I know
beneath every accomplishment
lies a foundation of failure and we
have all been broken

We have all known triumph over great loss and tragedy
and in each poem spoken, each painting painted
each dance move made and each song sung
each time we breathe we simultaneously
exhale hope and inhale sorrow
because we know
– we may not understand why we know but we know –
it does not have to be this way
and we can all make a difference

With every utterance we cast stones
into the wishing wells that are held
in the centre of each others eyes

…to be continued.

Note: As a parent, I don’t know how this mother is not bawling her eyes out with joy when her child hears his first sound. That would totally break me with unbearable happiness.