digital sarah art joy

I think you should yawp ~ collaged thoughts #2

~ 6 minutes to read

Transcript

This is collaged thoughts number two. I think you should yawp. The definition of yawp, wait, let me go into an actual dictionary - oh, I really like that one though, where is this from, where is this from? Oxford languages, do you have a source?

This is collaged thoughts number two. I think you should yawp. So, the dictionary.com definition of yawp is a verb, to utter a loud harsh cry, to yelp, squawk, or bawl, or to talk noisily and foolishly or complainingly. I don’t think you should talk complainingly, but I think you should talk noisily and foolishly. This isn’t really an epiphany this time, this is more of a motivational speech for myself to continue making these foolish collaged thoughts of me just yawping which I feel is different from yapping. Let me look that up. Yap, to bark sharply, shrilly, or snappishly, yelp. Or, to talk shrilly, noisily, or foolishly, okay so they are similar, but yawp is also from a Walt Whitman poem, and it’s song of myself 52. Should I just read this whole thing? Song of Myself 52, by Walt Whitman.

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow’d wilds,

It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you.

I was trying to think of something, of what I wanted to talk about for this video, and I was sitting out, on the back of my husband’s truck, with my face towards the sun and it lit up my eyelids, in the way that, you know, the sun does, it turned everything, and everything turned orange and gold and red and when I opened my eyes and looked up at the sky, it was this beautiful, bright, just luscious indigo blue. And I don’t remember what it was that I was thinking while I was sitting out there, what I was planning on saying for this video. I think I want the theme to be about why your voice matters, why me practicing using my voice matters when the world is so full of voices. I’m not a very talkative person.There’s probably only a handful of people who have ever heard me talk for 15 minutes straight in real life. And yet I find myself called to make these and share my voice. I think because I value so much listening to other people’s voices. It’s a really different feeling listening to someone vs reading what they, reading something they’re written, even though your writing also has a component of your voice. It just hits different.

Using your voice matters because it’s a way to create the environment and the world and the moments that you want to see. Your voice could be crickets and grasshoppers, making the ambiance for a summer night, or they could be a loud obnoxious car interrupting the ambiance for a summer night. Your voice can bring people together, can make other people think, your voice can make other people happy or sad or thoughtful or playful or afraid. Or your voice can make people feel afraid, or lonely or alone. Do you notice how you encourage to use their voices or not use their voices? Do you tell people to quiet down or stop speaking so loud or do tell people to speak up, do you people to sing louder, to celebrate, to cry freely?

I’d also like to read you a poem that I wrote called What more is there to say

the library is full of books you haven't read full of poems you haven't heard full of lives you haven't met full of wisdom you haven't breathed

the speakers are spilling out songs you don't know the words to spilling stories you don't know the ends of spilling news you don't understand spilling secrets you wish you didn't

the screens are overwhelmed with voices and visions and faces and bodies and eyes and fingers pointing and hands grasping and legs running and hearts begging and lessons and debates and compassion and distrust and hope and angst and yawps and whispers and

what more is there to say?

what is the book germinating in your fingertips? what is the poem taking root in your palms? what is the life pulsing through your heart? what is the wisdom digesting in your gut? what is the song deepening your breath? what is the story revealed by your scars? what is the news only your eyes can see? what shattering secret will you share?

your voice, your vision, your face, your body, your eyes, your fingers pointing, your hands grasping, your legs running, your heart begging, your lessons, your debates, your compassion, your distrust, your hope, your angst, your yawps,

what does the sun whisper only to you?

Oh something I did want to share about this collage that I’m working on here, is that I didn’t realize it until I started to edit this footage that the image of like the gallery wall art, um, it was the page right before the page where I got the little picture frame with the phrase inside of it, and I didn’t realize they were like right next to each other in the magazine until I went back and watched, until I went back, until I started to edit this footage, and saw me rip out the page and behind it was the other where I cut out the little frame.

The choice is yours and it’s simple. Work hard and be nice to people.

I think that’s where it starts. I think that, I think that’s how, I think that’s, (laughter), I think that’s the start of how to be nice to people, to recognize that they are untranslatable and to use your own voice and your own translation skills of translating your thoughts and your experiences and your emotions in to your words and your voice, using that experience to help translate themselves.

And I think our individual voices matter because it’s so crazy that there are literally billions of people on this planet and there have been literally billions of billions of people, I don’t know if that’s true, but there have been so many people who have lived on this planet, and no one is the exact same combination of experiences as you.

It’s so hard to fathom that, of course we have shared experiences, of course we have similar experiences, but even when we have a shared experience, our histories are different which means our perspectives are different and the lessons we’ve learned in the past and how those have influenced our understanding our experiences that we shared are different. And that’s why your voice matters because literally noone can see the things you do, can say things you can, can think the things you think, in the way you think them. Because somewhere, of course, someone has had these thoughts that I’m having, but they’re not sitting in my bedroom with the windows open listening to these bugs and the wind rustling through my maple tree. They’re not, they’re probably not endeavoring to collage voice notes over a video of them collaging a children’s board book. And I think it matters that we all have a unique voice because different things will resonate with different people. Sometimes people just have to hear something in a certain way or from a certain person for it to impact them and shift the way that they think, so even if two people are spreading the same message, saying the same things, they should, and it’s a good thing. This was collaged thoughts number 2, I think you should yawp. I think you should yawp because one of the things that gives our lives meaning is feeling connected and for whatever reason yawping and having someone listen and hear you yawp creates a strong sense of connection. I think you should yawp because someone likes the sound of your voice. I think you should you yawp because if you don’t, who will speak, who will converse with the grasshoppers, what?

#collaged thoughts #video