The world has leaned heavy on some of us
It has broken us and then
scorned our brokenness as weakness
ridiculed our sensitivity as defects

The world cares little for us
and even less for what we have to say
it has delighted in crushing our creative hearts
But you are among poets tonight

Our small voices cry out
from a wilderness of pain and despair
lost in forests so deep that they hide the light
and so wide as to leave us, all alone

But you are among poets tonight
who have felt that pain
lived in that darkness, and have been alone
and you will be heard

Many of us come from families that never knew us
did not know what to do with us
we were aliens to their dysfunction
and strangers among them

But you are among poets tonight
here and now, nothing is out of…