I like how she's infused a level of detachment into this. Like she's looking down on herself. Really captures the subtle numbness that sinks in during hard times. And I love how it feels like she's averting her eyes from grief but also finding it everywhere she looks. Beautiful!
My dad couldn't stop washing the floors when his dad was dying, we were literally standing around looking at caskets with my granddad and talking about flowers and my dad had his head down and a mop in his hand. Grief really does the weirdest things to us.
"My father watches from the bedside chair, his mother and daughter strung together with tightrope hands, fingers that look like his own." Freaking loved the whole poem to be honest!👍👏
I've never really 'got' poetry, I loathed it in school in fact. This poem (and channel) has inspired me to try again, to re-read the poems my mum loves and re-educate myself. I can only thank you. I'll admit there is something about having a poem read out loud though.
No Matter the Wreckage is such a good book and Sarah is such an amazing poet. Never thought I would hear her read Forest Fires, it just strikes straight to the heart.
"I will leave him to slice and dice the things he can." I loved this. Sometimes people who seem distracted and inattentive, or have their focus set on something seemingly irrelevant during or after a crisis are simply reaching, grasping for anything that can restore their sense of stability. When I'm stressed, I clean compulsively. I'll rewash the same dish or wipe down the same countertop three times without realizing it. My wife knows I'm not upset about the dishes, or the counters. She knows I'm not trying to ignore her. I'm thankful that she can recognize my grief and distress, and support me all the same.
kujmous this line got me as we are desperately trying to survive the raging bushfires here in my state in Australia. When asked what my favourite colour was, I used to say ‘burned orange’ until two nights ago, this burned orange was all there was
I don't usually comment on youtube videos but the unraveling of this poem was beautiful. The topic was close to my heart as I had recently suffered a similar (though these are never the same) experience with my Aunt. This feels so genuine, as if the grief I had felt then and still feel now was called out for it was/is. Thank you for making me feel seen and empathized with! ♡
My family went through something like this a few years ago when my grandpa was in the last stages of dementia. There’s something about poetry that I think reaches out to people. Maybe because it’s creating images and moments that you can step into with your own experiences and memories 🤔 It feels to me like something not completely finished, like there is still space left for the person reading to come to their own understanding of the poem
Thank you. My grandpa is in the hospital right now and this helped me process some of the things I’m feeling about it, and connect it to the experience other people have
It's such a joy to hear Sarah's poetry! As my favorite living poet she's helped me see the world in ways I never had before and hearing her wonderful and thoughtful prose has been a gift.
"And somewhere in California a place I once stood is burning. " As someone who is new to poetry, these words made everything about this poem make sense. It made everything about this poem go from understandable to relatable.
Almost 2 years and I keep turning every time there's a forest fire in my country. Such a beautiful poem, it has always helps me recover from a sad mood.
This poem is beautiful. When my grandfather was dying, my gran read book after book as she sat at his bedside in the hospital. These things, they stay with you, and this poem captures that excellently.
This is my favorite poem on this channel so far. I really felt like I was connecting with it and it hit me in some tender places. It was the catalyst for some tears, thank you.
I came across this poem a few months ago, shortly after my grandmother had died. I promptly had a sob, and I bookmarked the poem to come back to. I've listened to the poem a few times since then, and I am so grateful for Sarah's ability to put into words what I could not.
"His mother and daughter, strung together with tightrope hands, fingers that look like his own. And somewhere in California a place I once stood is burning"
My grandmother recently passed. This made me feel alot of things that I didn't know I had in me. Thank you so much for this. This channel is gonna be great for me
sarah kay is my favorite!! she and phil totally got into spoken word. i dont write my own much preferring prose but i’ve done more in poetry lately, and that’s one-hundred percent thanks to them.
Sarah and Phil Kay visited my community college a few years ago and it was absolutely incredible. I was taking a creative writing class at the time (because I was hoping it might help me write short stories) and instead I ended up realizing how much I love reading and writing poetry. It has such an amazing way of expressing imagery and emotion. I’m so glad sarah got to read this beautiful poem on ours poetica
loved this. i have never experienced the kind of familial grief she is describing but juxtaposed with the existential despair the fires mean - it all resonates. "And somewhere in California / a place I once stood is burning." i realize that almost certainly held for me at some point during the fires in the past few years
I read and re-read this poem this morning. Thinking about my own grandma and my mother and my daughter, the grief I bear in my heart and the Earth I will leave behind for her future. A morning cannot start with more sadness. Thank you for writing, reciting, and making this video!
This poem truly got to me a few months ago and I now own this book. The way she plays with time and space, makes comparisons without jamming it down your throat truly made me feel something, which is a rare thing to receive while watching a youtube video. I've read all of the poems in that book multiple times, some of them I could recite by now, and yet I still am hit with a new feeling everytime I read them. Thank you for making me love poetry again, in the same way I used to.
I love Sarah Kay so much! I was introduced to her poems in English class last year when we watched her TedTalk. It was the first time I understood that poetry isn’t always complicated words on a page that I struggle to relate to or get meaning from.
I haven’t hear a Sarah Kay poem in years!! This is thrilling! She and Andrea Gibson got me interested in poetry my senior year of high school. Thank you, Sarah! ❤️
I read this and I thought of the day before my 18th birthday. I thought of my grandma, barely awake on a hospital bed, saying that I looked as if I were a 4-year-old girl again. And she said I was gorgeous, and so was my hair. I miss her. Thank you, Sarah. You're brilliant.
Oh my heart... I adore Sarah Kay, her poetry has been in the background of my life for years, and everyone I return to it, it's always on the poem I most needed to hear
“My grandmother’s tiny body is a sinking ship on white sheets." Made me burst into tears. My eyes widened in complete disbelief and understanding, and I simply cried. I haven't lost a grandmother, but I have lost my mother. I saw her tiny body get lost in white hospital sheets as well, so this one line nearly destroyed me. On the other hand though, it was incredibly helpful, allowing me to know that I'm not alone in how I feel.
sarah kay was the person who inspired me to start reading poems and listening to slam. i was 15 when i first watched her perform "astronaut" on youtube. it changed my life. thank you.
I will never not love sarah kay and her writing, theres is something so gentle about it, and yet a strength that holds your hand and promises everything will be okay
When I heard about this channel on vlogbrothers Sarah Kay was the first person I hoped would be featured! Thank you for sharing this. I lost 4 grandparents in the same year & when it was happening I felt weirdly detached. Like I was watching it on the news rather than living it.
I was fairly new to poetry when sarah Kay visited my school a few years ago. Her poetry is amazing to me. She describes things I’ve never experienced in a way that’s understandable and very moving. And she writes about many kinds of things, funny and sad and profound (usually a mix of all those things in each poem).
This poem was wonderful. I only know Sarah as a Slam Poet, so to hear her recite her beautiful, written poetry was another experience entirely. So beautiful.
I've been listening to the poems one after the other, after hearing John introduce the channel. Although all of them until now have been special and mesmerising and interesting, this is the first one that made me cry out of nowhere. Beautiful.
Ah Sarah, you always get my heartstrings playing and my eyes burning. I saw you and Phil Kaye perform years ago in Mebourne and loved every moment of it, I treasure my copy of your book and the pic snapped of us after the show. Thankyou for being you 😊 DFTBA
It took me a second to remember, but I finally did recognize Sarah from her spoken word poetry videos, which I absolutely loved. I especially liked her video with Phil Kaye (no relation, and she'll tell you, see "Origin Story"). And speaking of, you guys should definitely ask Phil to read a poem on here as well as his work is amazing too.
I had an English teacher who told me that most poetry is meant to be read. I never understood, until now. I'm so excited to discover new poetry, including some that I would have overlooked otherwise, like this poem.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
Sarah was one of the first poets who got me interested in the genre. I’m delighted to see her featured on this channel!
Omg me too! 9 years ago I used to binge watch her, Phil, Taylor Mali, and many others until I knew their poems by heart. Thank you so much Sarah!
Us too 😍
I like how she's infused a level of detachment into this. Like she's looking down on herself. Really captures the subtle numbness that sinks in during hard times.
And I love how it feels like she's averting her eyes from grief but also finding it everywhere she looks.
Beautiful!
Mich D well translated!
Gorgeous. "I will ask if he needs help and understand when he says no." really got me.
zewszw c to caunkx
My dad couldn't stop washing the floors when his dad was dying, we were literally standing around looking at caskets with my granddad and talking about flowers and my dad had his head down and a mop in his hand. Grief really does the weirdest things to us.
"My father watches from the bedside chair, his mother and daughter strung together with tightrope hands, fingers that look like his own." Freaking loved the whole poem to be honest!👍👏
I've never really 'got' poetry, I loathed it in school in fact. This poem (and channel) has inspired me to try again, to re-read the poems my mum loves and re-educate myself. I can only thank you. I'll admit there is something about having a poem read out loud though.
wow. I'm tearing up
"... controlling something this big is impossible " just broke me
Thank you
No Matter the Wreckage is such a good book and Sarah is such an amazing poet. Never thought I would hear her read Forest Fires, it just strikes straight to the heart.
"I will leave him to slice and dice the things he can." Oh wow.
This is quickly becoming my favourite thing on the internet. Thank you!
“my grandmother’s tiny body is a sinking ship on white sheets” 💔
That line hit me like a BRICK..just went right through me.
A perfect line
"I will leave him to slice and dice the things he can." I loved this.
Sometimes people who seem distracted and inattentive, or have their focus set on something seemingly irrelevant during or after a crisis are simply reaching, grasping for anything that can restore their sense of stability.
When I'm stressed, I clean compulsively. I'll rewash the same dish or wipe down the same countertop three times without realizing it.
My wife knows I'm not upset about the dishes, or the counters. She knows I'm not trying to ignore her. I'm thankful that she can recognize my grief and distress, and support me all the same.
"painting the evening news a different shade of orange."
This made me laugh then cry.
Wow that was a subtle joke(?). I didn't pick up on it until reading your comment.
kujmous this line got me as we are desperately trying to survive the raging bushfires here in my state in Australia. When asked what my favourite colour was, I used to say ‘burned orange’ until two nights ago, this burned orange was all there was
This is a stunning study in grief and the inescapable nature of tragedy. Thank you so much for sharing.
Slipping this into my heart pocket. Thank you.
A beautiful sentiment
Yes, I think I need a heart pocket for poetry.
I don't usually comment on youtube videos but the unraveling of this poem was beautiful. The topic was close to my heart as I had recently suffered a similar (though these are never the same) experience with my Aunt. This feels so genuine, as if the grief I had felt then and still feel now was called out for it was/is. Thank you for making me feel seen and empathized with! ♡
My family went through something like this a few years ago when my grandpa was in the last stages of dementia. There’s something about poetry that I think reaches out to people. Maybe because it’s creating images and moments that you can step into with your own experiences and memories 🤔 It feels to me like something not completely finished, like there is still space left for the person reading to come to their own understanding of the poem
For all the dystopian hell the internet has wrought, three days a week I get to wake up to someone reading me poetry and that, and this, is beautiful.
I think this is my favorite poem read on this channel. Thanks for sharing
Thank you. My grandpa is in the hospital right now and this helped me process some of the things I’m feeling about it, and connect it to the experience other people have
It's such a joy to hear Sarah's poetry! As my favorite living poet she's helped me see the world in ways I never had before and hearing her wonderful and thoughtful prose has been a gift.
"And somewhere in California a place I once stood is burning. " As someone who is new to poetry, these words made everything about this poem make sense. It made everything about this poem go from understandable to relatable.
My grandmother passed away last year and this really hit home. It made me cry listening to you read it.
I just realized that "ours poetica" is a play on "ars poetica"
I still don't get it. Could you please explain?
@@rakshyakharel9398 "the art of poetry" to "our poetry", because ars and ours sound the same.
@@ojiverdeconfleco Thanks!
Rakshya Kharel ya I named my company after it! Very famous two thousand year old poetic manifesto by Horace
Almost 2 years and I keep turning every time there's a forest fire in my country. Such a beautiful poem, it has always helps me recover from a sad mood.
This poem is beautiful.
When my grandfather was dying, my gran read book after book as she sat at his bedside in the hospital.
These things, they stay with you, and this poem captures that excellently.
This is my favorite poem on this channel so far. I really felt like I was connecting with it and it hit me in some tender places. It was the catalyst for some tears, thank you.
I came across this poem a few months ago, shortly after my grandmother had died. I promptly had a sob, and I bookmarked the poem to come back to. I've listened to the poem a few times since then, and I am so grateful for Sarah's ability to put into words what I could not.
"His mother and daughter, strung together with tightrope hands, fingers that look like his own. And somewhere in California a place I once stood is burning"
Oh Ms. Kay what a beautiful and moving poem. The forest fires of life follow us everywhere. Thank you.
My grandmother recently passed. This made me feel alot of things that I didn't know I had in me. Thank you so much for this. This channel is gonna be great for me
sarah kay is my favorite!! she and phil totally got into spoken word. i dont write my own much preferring prose but i’ve done more in poetry lately, and that’s one-hundred percent thanks to them.
Annnd I'm sobbing. Thank you, brothers Green for introducing me to this channel.
I could listen to Sarah reading forever, it brought so many memories of my grandmother, which I choose not to remember. Thank you.
Sarah and Phil Kay visited my community college a few years ago and it was absolutely incredible. I was taking a creative writing class at the time (because I was hoping it might help me write short stories) and instead I ended up realizing how much I love reading and writing poetry. It has such an amazing way of expressing imagery and emotion. I’m so glad sarah got to read this beautiful poem on ours poetica
My community lost someone suddenly and unexpectedly yesterday; fitting that today's poem captures grief so well. Thank you.
loved this. i have never experienced the kind of familial grief she is describing but juxtaposed with the existential despair the fires mean - it all resonates. "And somewhere in California / a place I once stood is burning." i realize that almost certainly held for me at some point during the fires in the past few years
No Matter The Wreckage is full of beautiful poems like this one, absolutely love Sarah Kay ❤️
I read and re-read this poem this morning. Thinking about my own grandma and my mother and my daughter, the grief I bear in my heart and the Earth I will leave behind for her future. A morning cannot start with more sadness. Thank you for writing, reciting, and making this video!
Fighting back tears. Poignant observation about personal disasters, mourning, and change. Thank you.
This poem truly got to me a few months ago and I now own this book. The way she plays with time and space, makes comparisons without jamming it down your throat truly made me feel something, which is a rare thing to receive while watching a youtube video. I've read all of the poems in that book multiple times, some of them I could recite by now, and yet I still am hit with a new feeling everytime I read them. Thank you for making me love poetry again, in the same way I used to.
I love Sarah Kay so much! I was introduced to her poems in English class last year when we watched her TedTalk. It was the first time I understood that poetry isn’t always complicated words on a page that I struggle to relate to or get meaning from.
I haven’t hear a Sarah Kay poem in years!! This is thrilling! She and Andrea Gibson got me interested in poetry my senior year of high school. Thank you, Sarah! ❤️
I read this and I thought of the day before my 18th birthday. I thought of my grandma, barely awake on a hospital bed, saying that I looked as if I were a 4-year-old girl again. And she said I was gorgeous, and so was my hair. I miss her. Thank you, Sarah. You're brilliant.
Oh my heart...
I adore Sarah Kay, her poetry has been in the background of my life for years, and everyone I return to it, it's always on the poem I most needed to hear
“My grandmother’s tiny body is a sinking ship on white sheets." Made me burst into tears. My eyes widened in complete disbelief and understanding, and I simply cried. I haven't lost a grandmother, but I have lost my mother. I saw her tiny body get lost in white hospital sheets as well, so this one line nearly destroyed me. On the other hand though, it was incredibly helpful, allowing me to know that I'm not alone in how I feel.
sarah kay was the person who inspired me to start reading poems and listening to slam. i was 15 when i first watched her perform "astronaut" on youtube. it changed my life. thank you.
This is so, so beautiful, and I would've never connected with it like this if it hadn't been read to me. So thank you.
Thank you for sharing this poem. My grandmother died a few months ago and I've never encountered a poem that has had such an effect on me.
Wow...heart wrenching and yet so beautiful. Thank you
I will never not love sarah kay and her writing, theres is something so gentle about it, and yet a strength that holds your hand and promises everything will be okay
That was gorgeous. Beautiful writing. Thank you for posting that.
Sarah Kay is the reason I am a poet. More of her please!
The voice is perfectly balanced in this reading. Beautifully done. Tearfully received.
Damnit, John, you're really going to get me to like poetry at this rate
... a place I once stood is burning.
I feel this so hard right now. Thank you, Sarah, for putting it into words.
"air as clean and sharp as these city-lungs could stand.."
for some reason that line sticks with me. no matter where I go.
the emotional depth and soft touch of your words brought me back to poetry years ago. i am a fan for life.
Wow! That was amazing! I could easily visualize what was being described.
When I heard about this channel on vlogbrothers Sarah Kay was the first person I hoped would be featured! Thank you for sharing this. I lost 4 grandparents in the same year & when it was happening I felt weirdly detached. Like I was watching it on the news rather than living it.
I didn't plan on reactualizing my grief this morning, but it is okay. It gets slowly softer with time, like ashes are soft to the touch.
Lovely, relatable, deep. Thank you.
Beautiful. Thank you.
Extremely powerful! Thank you!
I'm very new to poetry, so I'm not sure I know why, but this brought me to tears.
I was fairly new to poetry when sarah Kay visited my school a few years ago. Her poetry is amazing to me. She describes things I’ve never experienced in a way that’s understandable and very moving. And she writes about many kinds of things, funny and sad and profound (usually a mix of all those things in each poem).
This poem was wonderful. I only know Sarah as a Slam Poet, so to hear her recite her beautiful, written poetry was another experience entirely. So beautiful.
This is such a beautiful and heartfelt poem. I can’t wait for your book to arrive, so I can read the rest of your work.
Really beautiful and deeply moving. Thank you. ❤️
Wow, I felt this one in my bones. I know a lot of these same scenes personally. Beautiful work.
As my family goes through something similar, this poem and channel continue to hit oh so close to home...in a comforting way.
I've been listening to the poems one after the other, after hearing John introduce the channel. Although all of them until now have been special and mesmerising and interesting, this is the first one that made me cry out of nowhere. Beautiful.
Great Poem. I love the hand upon hand line. An old form of oath making, unspoken.
This is so beautiful, thank you. The ending gave me chills
It had been long since any Sarah Kay video came out. Pleasant surprise
it's so nice to see and hear her recite a poem again, i've watched phil and sarah's poetry slams an insane amount of times by now
Sarah's voice and delivery are unparalleled
SARAH KAY IS MY FAVORITE POET THANK YOU FOR INVITING HER
Oh wow that book cover is gorgeous
I've replaued thos so much over the past few days.
gosh, i love sarah's poetry.
Ah Sarah, you always get my heartstrings playing and my eyes burning. I saw you and Phil Kaye perform years ago in Mebourne and loved every moment of it, I treasure my copy of your book and the pic snapped of us after the show. Thankyou for being you 😊 DFTBA
Some how I love Sarah Kay even more now
She’s the first poet I love and wrote the first book of poems I love:)
I absolutely love this channel. What a beautiful poem.
Beautiful poetry
Sarah Kay weaves some dang beautiful words. Gosh I like her.
Terrific piece and so glad this channel is starting to get the traffic it deserves. Bravo!
It took me a second to remember, but I finally did recognize Sarah from her spoken word poetry videos, which I absolutely loved. I especially liked her video with Phil Kaye (no relation, and she'll tell you, see "Origin Story"). And speaking of, you guys should definitely ask Phil to read a poem on here as well as his work is amazing too.
This is resonating very differently now but still in a way that clarifies many of my feelings amid a pandemic... thank you Sarah
I had an English teacher who told me that most poetry is meant to be read. I never understood, until now. I'm so excited to discover new poetry, including some that I would have overlooked otherwise, like this poem.
I really loved this one
Holy shit, I genuinely cried. I don't even read but that whole thing put me in a place and I could feel it. Wow... That was a hell of an emotion.
This is the best channel.
I love this channel! I think I’m into poetry now!
Thanks for this channel! And this video! And Sarah! I love them all.
Sarah Kay’s poetry always gets me
I love Sarah Kay so freaking much
I don't know what to say. This was beautiful and heart-wrenching.
This got me. I know Santa Cruz well, and I have spent far too much time in hospitals. Thank you.
That was so beautiful, thank you ❤️
hauntingly beautiful.