Today, TOMORROW and, Yesterday.
To this day, our dream for tomorrow,
and a crime from the past...
How do these things come
together?
Shane Koyczan is a Canadian poet and writer. He is most well known for his poem To This Day.
To This Day is a poem about childhood. A childhood where beauty is a thing that goes unnoticed. A time where no one understands who the person behind the pills is. Where cruelty is a compromise we make with ourselves to makes understand why we can't be who we are. We are told to quit by those who misunderstand us but yet we keep going. We can't tell others of our struggles because without them we are no one, at least that's how we feel. We feel we are our defaults, but in actuality we are just human. We are little imperfections, but they are what make us who we are. Our flaws are what make us strong. They are what separate us from the monsters wielding the knife of humiliation. It does not matter if they have the right to our emotions, because people say things like," Kids can be cruel".
Then we go on to wonder why people go on to murder others with what seems no real motive. we don't understand why they don't have a reasons like, he cheated on me or he ran over my dog. no, those kinds of killers, the cold blooded kind tend to be the ones who can be the most frightening. An example would be a case that happened years ago in 1959, where a family of four were found brutally murdered. The reason this specific case is so well documented for people to review over Fifty years later is an author called Truman Capote. Capote was a journalist and a life long friend of Harper lee, another famous author. When capote heard of the brutal murder of the Clutter family in small town Holcomb, Kansas he just had to be in the action. He drove from his home in New York with Harper Lee to find out more. In turn, after four years of writing and researching, and a little bit of identity theft, he created a new genre of writing called a Non-fiction Novel. In his writing you get a peak into the mind of a killer, particularly Perry. Unlike Dick, Perry seemed to have more of a heart, at least in capote's portrayal of him. So, when you take a look into Perry's past you find abuse from all corners of his life. People must have seen him as this messed up kid. He was a chronic bed wetter and the nuns at his catholic orphanage punished him for it. As he grew up he found himself in juvenile camps and in a local gang. Eventually landing himself in prison for minor gang type stuff.
Perry was just a small town boy when he was younger and had a family.He had a dream like everyone else. However with only a grade school education and an abusive upbringing his environment turned him into a monster. In a perfect world Perry would have been an upstanding citizen, in our world he even served our country in the North Korean War. I sit here not knowing what his american dream was, but i still believe he had one. He was capable, he had the will and drive to be anything, but in the end his downfall was not his insanity, it was his humanity.
To This Day is a poem about childhood. A childhood where beauty is a thing that goes unnoticed. A time where no one understands who the person behind the pills is. Where cruelty is a compromise we make with ourselves to makes understand why we can't be who we are. We are told to quit by those who misunderstand us but yet we keep going. We can't tell others of our struggles because without them we are no one, at least that's how we feel. We feel we are our defaults, but in actuality we are just human. We are little imperfections, but they are what make us who we are. Our flaws are what make us strong. They are what separate us from the monsters wielding the knife of humiliation. It does not matter if they have the right to our emotions, because people say things like," Kids can be cruel".
Then we go on to wonder why people go on to murder others with what seems no real motive. we don't understand why they don't have a reasons like, he cheated on me or he ran over my dog. no, those kinds of killers, the cold blooded kind tend to be the ones who can be the most frightening. An example would be a case that happened years ago in 1959, where a family of four were found brutally murdered. The reason this specific case is so well documented for people to review over Fifty years later is an author called Truman Capote. Capote was a journalist and a life long friend of Harper lee, another famous author. When capote heard of the brutal murder of the Clutter family in small town Holcomb, Kansas he just had to be in the action. He drove from his home in New York with Harper Lee to find out more. In turn, after four years of writing and researching, and a little bit of identity theft, he created a new genre of writing called a Non-fiction Novel. In his writing you get a peak into the mind of a killer, particularly Perry. Unlike Dick, Perry seemed to have more of a heart, at least in capote's portrayal of him. So, when you take a look into Perry's past you find abuse from all corners of his life. People must have seen him as this messed up kid. He was a chronic bed wetter and the nuns at his catholic orphanage punished him for it. As he grew up he found himself in juvenile camps and in a local gang. Eventually landing himself in prison for minor gang type stuff.
Perry was just a small town boy when he was younger and had a family.He had a dream like everyone else. However with only a grade school education and an abusive upbringing his environment turned him into a monster. In a perfect world Perry would have been an upstanding citizen, in our world he even served our country in the North Korean War. I sit here not knowing what his american dream was, but i still believe he had one. He was capable, he had the will and drive to be anything, but in the end his downfall was not his insanity, it was his humanity.
To see the video by Shane Koyczan click on any of the above photos.