The Shadow Guy of Life

             

A sunshine is a symbol that will always be there everyday to remind us that in every darkness there will always be light. In every cold heartless breeze there will be a warm soothing wind.

             We had an individual project from our communication class that requires us to present a poem - any type of poem - in front of the class. So looked it up in the internet and searched for something that gets into me. Something that somehow connected me at that moment.And I found this spoken poetry by a guy named Harry Baker. Harry Baker is a professional spoken poet. This piece of his was presented in his TedEx talk in youtube. Here it goes:

So this one is called “ The Sunshine Kid.”

Old man sunshine was proud of his sun.

And it brightened his day to see his little boy run.

Not because of what he’d done, nor the problems overcome.

But that despite that is disposition remained a sunny one.

It hadn’t always been like this.

There’d been times when he’d tried to hide his brightness.

You see, every star hits periods of hardship

It takes a brighter light to inspire them through the darkness

If we go back to when he was born in nebula,

We knew that he never was thought of as regular,

Because he had a flair about him,

To say that midas touch is wrong

But all he went near seemed to turn a little bronze

Yes this sun was loved by some more than others,

It was a case of joseph and his dream coat and his brothers

Because standing out from the crowd had its pros and cons,

And jealousy created enemies in those he outshone

Such as the shadow people

Now the shadow people didn’t like the sunshine kid,

Because he showed the dark things the shadow people did,

And when he shone he showed places where the shadow people hid,

So the shadow people had an evil plan to get rid of him,

First up—they made fun of his sunspots

Shooting his dreams from the sky, their words were gunshots,

Designed to remind him he wasn’t very cool

And he didn’t fit in with any popular kids at school,

They said his head was up in space and they would bring him down to earth,

Essentially he came from nothing and that is what he was worth,

He’d never get to go to university to learn,

Only degrees he’d ever show would be the first degree burns

From those that came too close, they told him he was too bright,

That’s why no one ever looked him in the eyes,

His judgement became clouded

So did the sky, with evaporated tears

As the sun started to cry

Because the sunshine kid was bright, with warm personality,

And inside he burned savagely

Hurt by the words and curses of the shadowy folk

Who spoke holes in his souls and left cavities,

And his heart was hardened, his spark darkened,

Every time they called him names it cooled his flames,

He thought they might like him if he kept his light dim

But they were busy telling lightning she had terrible aim,

He couldn’t quite get to grips with what the said,

So he left his light be eclipsed with what they said

He fell into a lone star state like texas

And felt like he’d been punched in his solar plexus

But that’s when little miss sunshine came along

Singing her favourite song about how we’re made to be strong

And you don’t have to be wrong to belong. Just be true to who you are,

Because we are all stars at heart

Little miss sunshine was hot stuff,

The kind of girl when you looked at her

You forget stuff

But for him, there was no forgetting her,

The minute he saw her, her image burned in his retina

She was out if this world, and she accepted him,

Something about this girl meant he knew whenever she was next to him,

Things weren’t as dark as they seemed, and he dared to dream

Shadows were nowhere to be seen, when she was there he beamed,

His eyes would light up in ways that can’t be faked

When she grinned her rays erased the razor- tipped word of hate

They gave each other nicknames, they were “ cool star” and “fun sun”

And gradually the shadowy damage became undone,

She was one in a septillion, and she was brilliant,

Could turn the coldest blooded reptilians vermillion,

Loved by billions, from Chileans to brazileans,

And taught the sinshine kid the meaning of resilience,

She said: “ all the darkness in the world cannot put out the light from a single candle

So how the hell can they handle your light?

Only you can choose to dim it, and the sky is the limit, so silence the critics by burning”

And if eyes are windows to the soul then she drew back the curtains

And left the sun shine through the hurting

In a universe of adversity these stars stuck together

And though days became nights the memories would last forever,

Whether the weatherman said it or not, it would be fine

Cause even behind the clouds the kid could still shine

Yes, the sunshine kid was bright, with warm personality,

And inside he burned savagely

Fuelled by the fire inspired across galaxies

By the girl who showed him belief

So that's The Sunshine Kid. It was a poem about how hard it is to be different and peculiar inside a community or society. Common tendency is that discrimination will be thrown against the weird one. The so- called abnormalities of the society. It was emphasized in the poem that no matter how much people lets you down or belittle you because you are just simply different from the majority, we can still rise up in our own feet. Shine in our own light. Walk in our own pace. After all, we don't have to fight, cause this is not a race.

Inspired by that poem, I decided to make my own poem that tries to answer and gives my personal insight in relation to what Mr. Baker had created. It is entitled The Shadow Guy. It includes analogies or my early life in a nutshell as a realization from The Sunshine Kid poem.

I am the Shadow guy

Years ago When I was still in early elementary years,

Picture this, But shorter and more skinny

wibbly wobbly, feeble and sickly

As a result, “Normally” there wouldn’t be a day that no one would tease me. Yes, Tease.

Call me names that would hurtfully describe my physique as long as they please.

Of course I get pissed

But the hell out of it, I couldn’t stand for myself I couldn’t even clench a fist.

When I start to talk back,

Instead of words coming out from my mouth, I tremble. My tears wouldn’t hold back

I always end up crying, or shouting my arguments - but mostly crying.

I am not like every other kids at school,

Who have incredible talents, win games, win girls YES I am not particularly cool.

I lived in a world that wakes up when the sun goes down.

Every day going down, down, down. Asking myself “ What is my Worth?

There came a moment when I thought I have nothing to lean on.

But that’s when this bright young lad named "Sunshine Kid" came along,

He was not yet that bright unlike the others

He was also bullied and treated as an outlier

But we are perfect for each other

We became best friends

We do stuffs together, 

play together,

laugh together and face against all odds together.

Oh,I wished that I could hold on to those wonderful moments forever

But one day,

I made him go away......

His light dimmed me cause he started to shine sooo bright,

So I started to envy sunshine kid, and bullied him

I am a green eyed monster easily tamed by its brightly lit master.

I envy sunshine kid, so I bullied him

To what he's capable of doing what he've done and what he did.

Oh I can't ignore what beauty he holds.

The stars, the candlelight and every great person's spotlight.

Now I am the Yin and he is the Yang.

I am the song that was never been sang.

I made him go away

NOW I started to realize, that I can make my imperfections my strengths 

Similar to the story of Daedalus and his son.

Instead of letting myself be imprisoned to the labyrinth of my jealousy.

I started to gather wax and feathers

To make myself wings and I started to fly

But unlike Icarus who didn’t listened to his father 

I didn’t went too high.

Cuz I know my limits

I am not the star of the night.

nor the main character of this wonderful theatre 

I am a black pepper

garlic powder, Vinegar, or any seasoning that can make the soup of your life JUST better.

GUYS!

Let us ALWAYS REMEMBER

Without a shadow,

A candlelight in a romantic dinner date u cannot appreciate.

Couples doing love scene, in their bedroom wouldn’t be that intimate.

Without darkness,

Stars... would be just stars Hidden and concealed behind each other's brightness.

Without shade,

There wouldn’t be Fifty shades of gray .

Every person would be just like every other person.

Cuz every minute shade of darkness makes a hanging portrait a wonderful picture.

Again

I am the Shadow guy, if being a shadow is what it takes to make you stay.

"Then let me be the Shadow of your life".

          It was a poem that talked about my childhood as someone being bullied. Someone that learned life in a hard way. As someone that cannot fight back or someone that prefers to cry instead of talking back, I had a life where I am always in the background. I didn't have a chance to grow my own skills in a pace appropriate for me because people around me is holding me down. Holding me from moving forward.

            As a child, I taught myself to appreciate every little thing that life can offer. How amazing things work. Most people see many things as awful when they are lesser good and important than the others. It is somehow comparative to the society - similar to darkness. Darkness is no good for many people because it brings sadness, evil, and blindness. In the other hand, Light is seen as the good thing as it can bring joy, hope and prosperity in terms of our society's growth. Yes, Light does bring good along with all its benefits. But there are things many people had overlooked. Darkness does not bring sadness, instead, it embraces it. It does not judge the gloomy. It will openly let the sadness air out from all of us. It does not bring evil, it is simply infested by evil because of the openness and freedom it provides. It does not blind people, it brings out the sight of imagination from each and everyone. The vast mind of every peoples' temple can fly without limits. That is Darkness for me. To be frank and honest, I think everyone should admit that Darkness is everyone's friend.
         
         If we deeply ponder about it, nowadays, light hasn't always been that good of a guy. Depression level begins to steep higher. Why? Because the light does not accommodate. The light judges. People in our society always forget that life should not be comprised by happiness alone. Sadness, anxiety, and fear becomes a stigma. We should be reminded that these other emotions are key for what we have achieved all throughout humanity. The light is always equated to happiness, wealth, joy, and freedom. What about the TRUTH? The truth that utopia is near to impossible. The truth that our society is in grave danger. The truth that many people is starving and striving to survive. The truth that not all is privileged to do what they bid to do. The light hasn't always been accommodating about this. As a result, many people take refuge in the dark to save their selves, and that is where crime shows up - and that is the truth.



          This is life. This is reality. Imperfection is what is real. Being open minded through seeing both the ugliness of the world and its stunning beauty at the same time, by then we are truly free. Free from the imprisonment of the worlds polarity. Sadness is as true as Happiness can be. Darkness is as important as light has ever been. ... Everything in life comes together.

           That thin kid has his dreams truer than yours. That black guy has capabilities similar or even better than yours. even you. YOU are as you as everyone can be.