‘Be careful about rooftops…’ + other bits of wisdom by Sarah Kay

I realize this post’s title is absurdly long, but Sarah Kay is absurdly talented, so I figured I needn’t be conservative.

This summer, I first saw Kay’s performance of her poem “Private Parts”, a reflection of her first love and a new look on what it means to be intimate. She differs from the majority of her spoken word peers, her voice soft and steady, contrasting the depth and creativity in every syllable she utters. She is sharp, generous and apt to bring wisdom to the table you never knew you needed. She is why I decided to give it a go at spoken word, and, I know this sounds weird, but her poetry is what I find myself reciting whenever I’m in the shower.

I’m a little obsessed.

So I’ve put together some of her quotes.

Just in case you want your mind jam-packed with insight.

1. And the places he never saw; the ones my parents labeled private parts when I was still small enough to fit all of myself and worry inside a bathtub, I made up for them by handing over all the private parts of me.
2. Impossible is trying to connect in this world; trying to hold onto others when things are blowing up around you; knowing that while you are speaking, they aren’t just waiting for their turn to talk. They hear you. They feel exactly as you feel at the same time that you feel it. It’s what I strive for every time I open my mouth. That impossible connection.
3. And I wonder if years from now, you would remember where it was you lost me.
4. Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
5. Oh, Brother. No matter your wreckage. There will be someone to find you beautiful, despite the cruddy metal. Your ruin is not to be hidden behind paint and canvas. Let them see the cracks. Someone will come to sing into these empty spaces.
6. You are a woman. Skin and bones. Veins and nerves. Hair and sweat. You are not made of metaphors. Not apologies. Not excuses. 
7. Maybe love stays. Maybe love can’t. Maybe love shouldn’t.
8. What are the odds of finding someone who knows not just to lend a hand or an ear, when you need them to give you their spine?
9. I will love you with too many commas and never any asterisks.
10. So I have learned to shape the words thank you with my first breath each morning, my last breath every night. When the last breath comes, at least I will know I was thankful for all the places I was so sure I was not supposed to be.
11. You are the best thing I never planned.
12. Nobody wants to be noticed when they are falling in love. It is a private moment. Whoever is falling in love with me, I reasoned, deserved not to be disturbed.
13. But the night there was a dry lightning storm, it was like strobe lights through the window. I snuck outside and stood with my face up, smiling: I thought God was taking photographs. And even though I felt silly standing there in my underwear, I figured I needn’t be embarrassed: he’s seen me in a whole lot less. 
14. No matter how many land mines erupt in a minute, be sure your mind lands on the beauty of this funny place called life. 
15. You have taken to wearing around your father’s hand-me-down anger. I wish that you wouldn’t. It’s a few sizes too big and everyone can see it doesn’t fit you, hangs loose in all the wrong places, even if it does match your skin color.
16. Just in case you are like me, just in case you do still think about the way your hands used to piano-key my spine, the way you would whisper spells into my ear when I was napping, the way I slipped notes into your jacket pockets; just in case you wonder if all those winks ever meant anything at all, I will tell you. You do not need to look very hard to find your shadow here. Your fingerprints are on these pages. So many of your footsteps in the snow.
17. I woke up this morning and said thank you. To the ceiling, the bedsheets, the mirror, the window. To whomever was listening.
18. You can only fit so many words in a postcard. Only so many in a phone call. Only so many into space, before you forget that words are sometimes used for things other than filling emptiness.
19. The years have spread us like dandelion seeds, sanding down the edges of our jigsaw parts that only used to fit each other.
20. His absence is louder than a firework.
21. There is nothing more beautiful than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline, no matter how many times it’s swept away.
22. You’ve got me watching the stars- and I don’t mean Brad and Angelina, no- I mean those stars. You’ve got me watching them, thinking about whether you’re watching the same ones as me…
23. I promise to tidy up before company arrives, wouldn’t want my socks and daydreams all over the carpet.
24. Being loved is not the same thing as loving. When you fall in love, it is discovering the ocean after years of puddle jumping. It is realizing you have hands. It is reaching for the tightrope when the crowds have all gone home.
25. I am a man on a mission. Which is to say – girl with a bucket. (But in the bright glare of late August, those two look an awful lot alike.)
26. Nobody else notices how naked my hands look. Nobody else things the space between my chin and shoulder seems oddly empty. But I know what this should feel like. I know what is missing.
27. It’s why I don’t wear makeup. So you always know that what you see is pretty much what you get.
28. My world was the size of a crayon box, and it took every color to draw her.
29. Know this. Know that you are the type of woman who is searching for a place to call yours. Let the statues crumble. You have always been the place. You are a woman who can build it yourself. You were born to build.