Month: October 2017

Upcoming Show: We All Have Fears!

So I’ve been quiet on here for the last little while, but it’s all been for a good reason, I swear!

It’s because I’ve been working on my first ever full-length, solo show, which debuts at the Edinburgh Horror Festival this Friday!  Banshee Labyrinth at 6.00pm!

I’m scared and excited for this!  A mix of some old and new material all neatly packaged in a strange little box.  I have no idea how well this is going to go, but I’ll definitely be keeping you all posted!  Who knows, I might even create a nice little book from this, or post up a video or poem or two!

#MentalHealthAwarenessDay

Today is World Mental Health Day. I could take the time to talk about my struggles but that wouldn’t help anything or change the following:

One in four people will experience a diagnosable mental health problems at some point in their life.

615 million people suffer from anxiety and depression.

Sometimes, it’s not easy to know how to be there for someone struggling with mental health. It’s not the same for everyone. But you shouldn’t let that stop you from helping someone.

❤

“What Can I Do To Make The Situation Better?”

Text, call,
Pick up the phone,
Be there however you can.

Make sure they’re safe
Ask a question,
Take a breath.

Move the pills,
Move the drink,
Move the knives.

Keep 999 on speed dial
Distract,
React,

Be appropriate,
Cool them down,
Keep them warm.

Let them be human,
Let them breathe,
Let them cry,

Remember this isn’t about you.
Hold them close, give them space,
Give them what they need that makes them feel safe.

Remind them someone is always there.
If you can’t be present, be a presence.
Let them know they’re never alone.

Craig A. Black

#PoeticAnswers 2017 – Done!

100 days, 100 questions, 100 answers as poems.

102 days ago, I would’ve said “that’s impossible!” But here we are.  And I’m a mix of emotions about it. Pride, accomplished, relieved, astonished (I honestly thought I’d give up after day ten) but also… I’m not completely satisfied.

I’m proud of dedicating myself and finishing the challenge, and there is a lot of work that I’m proud of. But there’s definitely some poems in there that didn’t turn out how I wanted them to or I was just generally not happy with.

I think there’s a lot of material that has potential and there’s some I may rewrite entirely, but right now, I’m all poemed out and could use a wee break.

So, if you’re interested, all of this year’s poems can be found here, please feel free to peruse. The future is on it’s way and it involves videos and more new writing. If you have any questions or want a chat, hit me up.

Huge, special thank yous belong to my friend Dave, who has been a very dedicated and supportive friend (he wrote these out in a book! It was the best birthday present ever!) and finally to Michael Clark who has contributed around 12-15 percent of these questions! Thank you both so, so much.

And finally, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of you. The readers, the questioners, without you, I wouldn’t have gotten to this. Thank you for your love and support.

I’ll be back soon with more poems, posts and gig updates!

 

#PoeticAnswers 100 – Why?

I don’t really know why
I do what or do or why
I put myself through this
One hundred day quest
To write poetry.

And even though
Some of it wasn’t my best,
I can say I put
Myself to the test
And passed and
A hundred poems can
Attest to that.

But you see,
This was something
I never thought I could do,
And when I said
“I write poetry”
I felt I had to prove
Something to myself
And to others because

I didn’t get a BA or Honours
In English or Literature
Or something relevant to this.
I worked my way from the bottom,
Primitively stringing as many
Words together as possible and
Aiming for the stars but
Preparing to miss.

But on the way down
I found some catharsis.
And a million different
Ways to play with words.
I found my life’s
Meaning and definition
In a thesaurus and dictionary
And found my voice
Through trial and error.

And now I can say
The things I want to say
The things I need to say
The things I didn’t know how to say
The things I didn’t know I wanted to say
In a way that let’s my
Incoherent and bipolar mind
Sound somewhat like it’s sane.

You and I have both found
Ourselves asking why I
Chose to go down this path.
I’ve asked myself this question
A hundred times in
A hundred ways and
I’ve arrived at
A hundred different answers
That twist and bend and
Find their way back to
This place.

This place where
I’ve not found myself but
I know I’m getting warmer.
This place where
I know I’m going to keep looking.
I know I’m around here somewhere.

#PoeticAnswers 99 – Are You Sure We Exist?

I think that I think I exist.
If thinking equals being,
Then I think that I exist.
But it’s not a conscious
Decision to will myself
Into this existence
And this is evident by
The persistent indecision
That I find myself facing
On a daily basis.

Because I’ve lived
My life thinking
“I think, therefore I am”
But I find I am in
A constant battle of
Positive versus negative
And logic dictates
I wouldn’t wish it
Upon myself so
Who did?

How would I know
If this wasn’t just
Some kind of crazy,
Inconsistent coma dream
From one too many
Car crashes, causing
Flashes of different lives
To flash across my eyes
In a systematic series of
Fortunate and unfortunate events.

Maybe this isn’t even me,
Maybe I’m someone else’s
Fantasy or hallucination,
A nighttime thought creation
Or process of dissociation,
A cultivation and culmination
And overall manifestation
Of stress and frustration
Or a figment of a
Perfect stranger’s imagination.

But at the risk of waxing existential,
I don’t think we’ve considered
The absolute potential of
Being part of an extraterrestrial
Game of The Sims.
Being trapped at the whims
And mercies of martians
Or deities who let us
Virtually have no control
In our lives.

Question from Justine F. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 98 – What Would You Do If You Couldn’t Fail?

I wish I could say
I would take the time to
Do something sensible, like

Resit that maths exam
Or ask you out or
Wish for peace,

But the gravity and
The bitter reality
Is this:

I would stop trying,
I would stop learning,
I would stop being me.

I would become bored,
I would become complacent,
I would become a failure to myself.

I would probably become depressed,
I would probably stop caring,
I would probably kill myself.

Question from Michael Clark from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 97 – Can You Write A Poem In Another Language?

01001000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00101110 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101101 01110000 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100100 01100101 01110011 00101100 00001101 00001010 01000010 01101111 01101001 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100100 01101111 01110111 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110011 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001001 01100110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01111000 01100001 01100100 01100101 01100011 01101001 01101101 01100001 01101100 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001101 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101001 01100100 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101110 01111001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01100001 01110000 01100101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01001101 01110101 01101100 01110100 01101001 01100110 01100001 01100011 01100101 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00001101 00001010 01000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100101 01101110 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001001 01100110 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 00001101 00001010 01000001 01101110 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 00101110 00001101 00001010 01000010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01110100 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 00001101 00001010 01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01101100 01100100 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01110000 01100101 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01100100 01100101 01100011 01100101 01110011 01110011 01101111 01110010 01110011 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00101100 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 00101100 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101100 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101100 01110101 01101001 01100100 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00101110 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110011 00101110 00001101 00001010 01010111 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00101110

Translation:

Humans are not computer data.
We are not simple codes,
Boiling down into ones and zeros.
If anything, we are hexadecimal.
Many sides, many shapes
Multifaceted.
But this is still not enough.
If we are told we can be
Anything we want to be.
But only if it fits in
The molds of our peers and predecessors.
Humans are not computer data,
We are flesh,
We are water,
We are fluid
We are new
We are change
We are living.
We are not ones and zeros.
We are not computer data.

Today’s question comes from fellow poet, John Simpson. Check him out!