Amanda Palmer

Dear Amanda

I dig you!

I’m so happy

You’re not like the rest

I pass on the street!

Each block holds

A thousand people’s dreams

Resting in the city’s insides

Trapped forever

In its hopeless heartbeat

Yet

I see your spirit shouting skyward

Upward and outward

Gently nudging artists of the world

To keep pushing and creating!

I say to the artist

The poets

The writers

The musicians

Reach in and find yourself

Your work

Your voice

Deserves to be heard

Find your tribe in life

And

If you can’t find it

Make your own

Look inside

Pry inside your soul

With the claws life has given you

Find yourself, it’s worth finding!

Oh Amanda

Humanity has a habit

Of

Smothering humans with rules

Of uniformity

Of color-coded sheep fleeces

And

Dress codes for the masses

Of geographical beliefs

That their world is right

And

All others are wrong

Of conduct constructed completely

With agendas and genders in mind

Yet

Between the rules and regulations

Of life there is the voice of the artist

Like you

Like Kathleen Hanna

Like Ian Mackaye

Giving the rest of us hope

Like stars a sailor sets sail to

In the darkness

Not knowing if he will see land

In the sunrise of tomorrow

Or

The dark clouds of a hurricane

The youth puts faith in the ones

Who has come before them

Not knowing what’s in

The next day’s sunrise

But having your words and songs

To weather whatever the storm