Climbing out of the negative

This is for the people who said I’d ‘never amount to Nothing’

So I climbed a mountain to get out of the depths of something

You made me feel that I couldn’t be.

I had to prove to me.

See between the cracks lay in front of me, that you made appear.

Dry my tears.

See the shear, cliff face with no fear, no helping hands.

No bag of chalk to douse my hands

Then again, You’d never understand.

I packed my ropes, and was ready to scale, desperate to show I am willing and able.

Shackled like Shackleton with no chance to fail,

No slips and Not even a guide rail.

I had to achieve

Prove to these who ridicule with ease

To tease

And drop kids self esteem

Lower the the roots of trees.

Cos at school I asked too many questions

I was shunned for being easily interested

Blessed with the want to learn,

The keys to turn

The ability to sit, quiet, listen, stern.

My focus wasn’t always the best it could be,

But you see me. I was looking to bigger and better dreams,

Had to wear my heart on my sleeve,

Nobody harnessing me.

Seems you teachers couldn’t help me

So I belayed my own dream.

Maybe I wanted to learn more than you could teach me?

I had to breach these wall, so you would reach me.

Scale the highest heights, push with all my might.

Free Solo, long hard day through too night.

Rucksack packed with all my tools,

looking like a fucking pack mule.

Isolated in my isolation

5 minutes late and ‘what am I supposed to learn staring at a wall’.

All these walls that you put up in front, I had to bear the brunt,

‘you said I couldn’t’, I wanted to call you a

But I cunt. I had to make good

Of this bad situation, celebrate and have self dedication.

My education, wasn’t all I wanted in life.

No, I was never gonna be an academic,

Those words you say stick

Makes a kid sick,

I had to work my way up quick from the ground up.

Grappling hook, so it didn’t pile n mound up.

Climbing Foothold after foothold,

No helping hand to hold.

The creative in me that you stole.

I had to go all alone to the limit to get it back.

Frayed ropes, about to snap

Pull up the slack.

Did you expect to see me concur this cliff face,

Be where I am up today, up and down the UK.

Doing what I was meant to do in my own way.

Staring down at your path that I knew couldn’t take.

And week after I week I pass all the scenery,

Sat on a train past the constant greenery

Through city’s you thought you’d never be seeing

Me,

I Walked into the wild,

Took a step back and looked at myself as a child.

I bridged the gap,

Broke my back

Took up the slack. Concurred the Vertical crack. And thats where I’m at.

By Matt Concannon

The Thirsty Poet