Joanna Hoffman performs "Hope"

hope is the stupid little yellow bird who used to batter his skull against my living room window over and over and over again with unrelenting excitement as if that next desperate surge forward would melt his wings through glass softly shoving aside molecules for twig-like bones to pass through and all of this for that love bird screaming behind bars and he wanted that bird thought her wings may be clipped but damn she is fly wanted to make her tweet his name and so every day for six months his head thumping harmonized with the clinking of breakfast spoons and my sister would look up from her cheerios and say that bird is stupid and 15 years later I look up for my beer and say no that bird is hope and sometimes hope seems stupid to everyone but the one hoping and everyone hopes for something the truth is I pretend to be acidic but I am really a dreamer who is terrified of wanting something she may never get after this last heartache I decided I should take jay-z's advice and be forever Mackin but the truth is I have no game and my pickup lines are all haikus I just want to show you the energy that crackles beneath my veins like exposed powerlines like my potential is as infinite as these blurred faces rushing past me and that's how I feel every time you call me like even our silences end in dot dot dot and who knows what could happen I have no flight plan just a speck in the distance of something that just might be close to beautiful so why not unfold these wings crush empty air between them like empty excuses like this crush on you is crushing me and I am a crush monster I get crushes on ideas and ideals and nonprofit organizations and I could think of nothing sweeter than spending my days making this world better and my dad says that's really great Johanna but there are bills to pay and I can't even say how many grown-ups have tossed me similar consolation prizes like the woman who came up to me once after a poetry reading and said honey you're idealisms real cute but you'll grow up one day and you should know things will only get worse from here and I should have said lady you had better [ __ ] pray I never grow up because if there weren't people out there who believed in possibility she would never get done I believe in evolution like a river slowly winding its way up a mountain like a broken-winged bird spiraling to heaven things can only go up from here and miracles happen every day so I hope for the day I considered a Jerusalem bar with my Arab friends and the only dispute will be over who buys the [ __ ] beer and I hope for the wedding I've wanted ever since I knew how to want it maybe hope is stupid as long as hope is a kamikaze whisper from your lips never meant to go anywhere but crashing down and maybe that's why it does but I believe in a hope that flies like a little yellow bird soaring into your living room through a window that has been open all along you

Channel: UrbanaPoetrySlam

Views: 60,686

Keywords: JoannaHoffman, SpokenWordPoet, Urbana, BoweryPoetryClub

Id: qis1WwQ9miw

Length: 3min 29sec (209 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 10 2012