Slowing Down: To See More Poems
By: Meg Kelly
A couple of weeks before this semester started, I was introduced to the work of Dallas Clayton, an author and illustrator who typically writes children's books. However, Clayton has a great online presence and will regularly post inspiration on his social media accounts. He posts rather optimistic and encouraging truths about life, and is a man of refreshing candor, especially with how devastating the world and Internet can be nowadays.
Out of all the work he has created, there has been one quote that has really resonated with me as I finish up my last semester as an undergraduate student. "The slower you move, the more poems you'll see." It's perhaps one of the simplest yet captivating phrases I have ever seen written down. It put into words a mindset that I've begun to develop.
About a year ago, I started an independent project on my campus which allowed me to create an arts and humanities page online. Up until this point in my life, I've always heard and read about the benefits of "mindfulness," but I brushed the concept aside. It didn't make sense to me, or even sound appealing, to be focused on the "now," when there were too many things in the past and the future that were demanding my attention. I'm sure many of you can relate.
It wasn't until after I dedicated myself to working on this page when I truly started to realize what mindfulness meant. My project forced me to be present in every situation I was in on campus, as I didn't want to miss any opportunities to learn from those around me and share their stories. Clayton writes about "slowing down," and I'm sure he means both physically and mentally. The phrase implies having a shift in consciousness in order to want to see what else is out there, right in front of you, instead of being trapped in your own world of never ending to-do lists and insecurities.
Poems are everywhere. They aren't just words strung together to sound self-impressed. They make you feel, in a world as numbing and fast paced as ours. Poems are the laughs in the student center if you care enough to listen. Or the beauty you can appreciate in an empty parking space because you're late to class.
Poems are in the ways that you breathe, climbing steep stairs on your way to class with a heavy backpack. You can see poems in the way that the grass turns green after a long winter. There are endless streams of poems and stories in a person sitting alone, if you care enough to ask about them. Or they can be the silence in your car or your dorm room after a long day.
Poems are the apprehension that comes from knowing that your future has a million possible different directions, and the fear that comes from thinking you may choose the wrong path. It's an even more beautiful poem when you realize that, inevitably, it's impossible for you to choose the wrong one.
Call me an English major, overly poetic, crazy--whatever you want--but I'm so glad that Clayton has put into words the way that I choose to see life around me. I believe that a college campus is full of millions of poems, and I'm so glad that I've had a chance to see them. And if you slow down enough, you may be able to see them, too.
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