A Post A Day Project - Day #3: Wow, This Twitter Thing Actually Works!

Twitter is a total mystery to me. It's full of symbols with weird names and everything is a link to something else and funky characters take you to their hipster badge (instagram picture) and there isn't a "dot com" or a "www" in the whole bunch. It's all just totally foreign to me. Although I have a twitter account and have just recently reached 100 tweets - that I sent out (what the heck did I send out?) it still makes me go,

"OK, how do I do this again?"

Cue the scratching head and the derber-derbers.

Anyway, so the other night I went to McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, Ca with some good friends for a birthday concert with Sean Rowe and his opener, Soko. It was an amazing night of acoustic bliss. I'll write more on that later which will lead me to edit this post to create a fancy link and I might add more stuff too - you never know so stay tuned - but then again I might not because what would I add extra besides a link that I wouldn't otherwise just say right here in the "first draft" so this is kind of a silly teaser really since no one wants a teaser that turns out to be someone's flaky procrastination - so the moral of this run-on sentence is - besides, "hey kids, listen to your high school English teachers or you'll end up like me!", um....where was I?

So yea, McCabe's was awesome and the music was very inspiring. The opener Soko was sharing her hauntingly beautiful songs about pain and tormented heartbreak which inspired me to write this poem.  I've never actually written a poem about someone I didn't actually know. Well, that's not true, I'm sure I penned many a sappy tale about a boy from New Kid's On The Block, or Leo Decaprio back in my high school days. Even though I stopped listening to New Kid's in 8th grade.  So this was an exercise in something new to write this about this woman who sang for us. I'll be honest, I don't ever really get anyone's poetry. Especially someone's rambled musings that have no rhyme or reason. And that is perfectly OK. It was just something that needed to be written. So I don't actually expect that someone will get this one either, because that is exactly what it is (especially if you actually like poetry.  If you do and you're a poetry snob, (you know who you are) then this is not a poem.

I repeat: THIS IS NOT A POEM! 

So to get to the whole, "Wow, this twitter thing actually works" part. I realized, "Oh, I bet this girl has a twitter" (of course she does. What self respecting artist doesn't?) so I went on that and thought that I could send this poem to her to read. She's also on facebook so I posted it there too just in case I messed up the twitter thing. Highly likely.  So I was all set to tweet her this link last night and then I was like,

"OK, how do I do this again?"

But, obviously it worked. She got it. 

This was my original tweet:

Coco Cana ‏@coco_cana

A concert at McCabe's Guitar Shop: "A Soko Inspired Poem"@SoKothecat #mccabes http://coco-cana.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-soko-inspired-poem.html?spref=tw …

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2:33 AM - 19 Aug 12 

This was Soko's response:

Soko ‏@SoKothecat

@coco_cana COCO, this is beautiful.. You are a great writer.. I am really touched by your words.. Thank you for the love and sweetness.. <3 p="p">

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4:12 AM - 19 Aug 12 

I thought that was pretty darn cool.

A Soko Inspired Poem

Soko opening for Sean Rowe at

McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, Ca.

  August 17, 2012

Pushing my fingers through my chest

past the bones,

feel the pain.

Lights blind my eyes as I reach in deep,

deeper down than I had planned.

There it is -

I hold my breath

in the haunting silence

of this room full of giants.

Small as a mouse I stand here bleeding...

I feel the pulse, pulse, pulsing through my fingers,

hair standing straight off my neck.

The light burning my eyes is whispering to me

letting me know I'm right where I should be.

Gasping and grasping tightly, I tug

forcing it to rip free.

Still pumping, ever pumping I pull it through the tunnel I left

to find my way out.

Because lord knows, I need a way out.

On the edge of a music stand I present this beating heart of mine as an offering to strangers in a dark room.

All of my stories, books full of stories pumping through those veins,

memories dripping, ever dripping to the floor.

My body still shrouded in pain - 

and I can't help but wonder if it's too much for this young life

as I stand here yearning for more?

I smile and trust you with my soul because if I don't I'll die from a life less lived.

I'll collapse from the weight of these words I carry on my back

and the memories will haunt my mind like a ghost floating through an attic...

...like an addict floating through a life.

So here I stand before you

naked

shattered

bones rattled bare

in my state of terrified adoration for the stage that calls me in my sleep.

And I will sing my pain for strangers in a dark room surrounded by giants

and if we all break free

ever free we will be

becoming angles who sing as one

beautifully.

-Colleen Duncan Canavan

*This poem was written after I got home from the amazing show at McCabe's Guitar Shop on August, 17, 2012.  We went to see Sean Rowe who kicked ass and whose words made us think, they made us cry, they made us laugh and at times they made us want to jump up and dance.  His soft spoken opener, Soko was charming and heartbreaking and the pain oozing out up on that stage made me want to slit my wrist half way though her set because it was so beautifully raw and touching.  After she left the stage we all looked at each other and just said, "wow!"  

This super cool evening was a birthday concert gifted to me by a very good, long time friend.  We met all the way back in kindergarden.  Thanks Leah!  This was truly a wonderful gift because you see, I am a stay at home mom who has little ones. I have a baby and a preschooler who like me to tuck them into bed at night so evenings out like this are rare. Especially when they are not with my husband who encourages me to go.  It was an awesome evening spent with wonderful people, delicious food, amazing live music and it left me feeling richly inspired - everything I ever want out of life.

Thank you!

Colleen Duncan Canavan "Coco Cana" is a freelance writer, two kids call her "mommy", a motorcycle riding hottie calls her "babe" and she is a lover of all things that burn deep within us. Except for heartburn, of course. That just sucks.  You can follow her mom's blog called, My Tales From The Crib here.