Poetry

I was looking through some files on my computer, and found this poem, which I wrote for my brother Jordan five years ago. It felt appropriate.



A Birthday Reflection
By Shayna Tivona


One year older.
365 days gone by, and what do you have to show for it?
Only inconspicuous moments, tiny segments of time which,
When dissected,
Reveal nothing but sheer emptiness.
Loneliness.
What you are is finite compared to the vast thing which is
Evolution.
And yet--
You are unique, powerful.
Possibilities idle delicately by your fingertips,
Waiting for initiative, sparked by you.
Only by you.
You alone have the power to change yesterday’s reality.
What will you do with tomorrow?
Will you use it,
Or will you leave it on the curb with the weekly trash,
Junk mail and Styrofoam, dirty spoons and broken string?
Don’t waste this opportunity.
Find what you were born to do, and do it.
Embody this very moment.
Use your empowerment.
Define yourself not by a categorization taught by grey or steel institutions,
but through a spiritual understanding which deepens as scrutiny intensifies.
Reach.
Don’t accept this place for how it is now.
Challenge your views, and in doing so, create.
Create soul.
Create the change, embody the change,
Feel the change you wish to see in this world.
You are the world.
For this, my friend, this here is a spiritual movement.
This is real connection.
This is why you stored up all that time.
Stop waiting to mature, and act.
Don’t disappoint all those who depend on you for
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of who the fuck knows what.
Don’t stop there.
Challenge me.
Don’t accept me for who I appear to be.
Don’t let me slide through life based on your assumptions.
Take the time to visit my home, talk to my kids.
See the world through naked eyes.
Through my eyes.
Become naked in your skin.
In your home.
Take that skin, that home, and craft it into a temple.
Rejoice in the sacred breathe which is in you.
Which is you.
This is wisdom, this is understanding.
This is being.
As you cross a busy street,
As you open your car door and step over a puddle to protect your brand-new shoes,
Carry that wisdom.
Do not drop it, do not forget it.
Cherish it as you sprinkle it on every surface you come across,
For knowledge is your private fairy dust.
So use it wisely.
Use your time wisely.
Don’t just take,
Give.
Focus on energy.
Receive and reproduce it in a higher form.
Become your truest self.
Become more than what you think you look like.
Surpass the stereotypes
Don’t let yourself end at the slurs.
Breathe.
Respect those who have done good
And for God’s sake, emulate them with deliberation.
Do not worship a shell, an image, a contraption which is not real.
Praise deeds, but do something even greater, even bigger.
Don’t fear the fate that society tosses at you on a tarnished platter.
Take that American Dream,
Reshape it, renew it, revitalize yourself.
That’s what you need to do
That’s what you need to embody.
Good luck.