Spoken Word Poem

Billions of people walk this earth every day, and not one of them will be moved the exact same way by the beauty that surrounds them. The wonderful thing about the unique variety of perceptions is that thousands of opinions could be about the same thing and all of them different.  "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder," is exponentially true, and I incorporated that saying into my plans for the filming of my Spoken Word Poem. An assignment given to me recently focused on the way we tell stories as individuals. I selected a Spoken Word Poem titled, The Crossroad by Norbert Mathumo. Here is the poem itself-

"THE CROSS ROAD

When words sound like a lost course
Who is will provide the answers to all this questions we ask
When the world feels like sinking sand
Who will beat fear to hold my hand?
When the road of life seems too long to reach the end
Who will tell me continue when am just about to stop

I am not afraid of what the world brings me
It is after all life, and it is meant to be
I cannot chose what my tomorrow becomes
But I can choose to become my tomorrow
And define my existence today
But a choice is but a choice
It may not define what becomes
Or what tomorrow may bring

 When behind lies the tattered ruins
Of an interrupted middle class firmly
When our differences of reason cannot elevate
When sense make no sense
And the silence in my house
Is beyond the count of grief
I sit and take a moment to meditate
For you to read my thoughts in a poem

 In the deepest end of solitude
I find a place to bury pain
What my heart cannot heed
My mind cannot feed
To corrupt my thoughts with greed
I am not afraid to be alone
Because no one is ever alone
But I am afraid to be what I am not
Like a wound left to rot

 A defined sense of solitude
At the cross road
When thoughts collide
When we take a moment to weigh our load
When we all pause
To Whig history

When the sea mimics the land
Life still exist within
When the sun set to the east
And the night is left for beasts to feast
Life still exist within
When all is lost
And when all is said and done
When fun has become less fun
When all have come and gone
When there is nowhere to run
Life still exist within

 When something becomes nothing
When nothing becomes something
And when ideas deceive the mind
In the interregnum
It is the journey of life
Not the arrival which occupies my mind
 When we get to the cross road,"

What I liked about this poem in particular was how the rhythm pulled the story along. I really connected with its message and knew that I could visualize doing something really interesting. I played with several ideas in the initial process of defining what the message was, and it was difficult to pinpoint the exact way i wanted to convey the story it told. The concept i struggled with the most was how severe i needed to show the grief and sadness that clouded this spoken word. Working with Abby Peek, we collaborated to come up with a vision for the story plot, and properly executing it. Our initial thoughts were to tell the story from a girl's point of view. We interpreted the meaning of the poem to be that of a struggle with overcoming a loss, not necessarily one that literally happened to her, but one that this girl felt emotionally. We worked for several days on our shots that we knew we wanted to capture. The difficult part of this project was surprisingly not the actual filming, but finding time to accomplish it. Timing was key, and sadly, we did not acknowledge how necessary it was to strategize that part of the project. Realistically, we only had time to film two days. With the fast approaching deadline, and no time left to film, we pulled extra b-roll that we had from last year to at least have a finished product. In all honesty, i am not pleased with the way we finished it. Maybe one day i will revisit the project to give it the proper time and attention it deserves, but for now, here is my spoken word poem: