My Walk with Dan Newth

Dan Newth is a poet. This man is a true artist who takes the surrounding world and makes it his vision…his inspiration.

Dan’s perception of the world is different than mine, but that’s because I can’t relate to what he has been through. It’s as though we share this space, but are complete strangers.

Dan is an amazing person who I’ll talk about more as time goes on (there is a lot there). What I would like to do now though is share one of Dan’s poems with you.

As my wife and I were talking with Dan, he recited this poem to us. The combination of his written and spoken words hit us differently, but the emotions that we felt were real. It was powerful.

I cannot recreate that moment for any of you, but I can share Dan’s poem…

walk away

by dan newth

My mind plays games when

stress triggers the flow

of subconscious childhood fears.

Not something I control

best I can do is mitigate.

I just walk away

away from situations,

away from possessions,

away from opportunities,

away from relationships.

It’s too much to fight.

I never learned physical

my bluff just brings more trouble.

My mind’s not deft enough

for subtleties of argument.

Doctor y give me pills.

Some make me paranoid

nsa and the homeland crew

monitoring me while hipsters harass

Some pills sedate, rotting my

liver for a slow painful death.

What I want is quick and quiet.

So again I walk away

from modern medicine;

from pharmaceutical products

using me to turn a profit.

On the streets where I sleep

someone calls; policeman wake me,

but I don’t argue, I walk away,

try to find a new sleep place.

But my mind gets rattled

and sleep gets exclusive.

Then the voices start whispering

can’t tell what they say at first.

Critical tones turn to sharp accusations

they talk to each other about me

never to me, as if I were shunned,

like fundamentalist shun the outcast.

Kurt Cobain has “friends in his head”

I have the committee that hates Dan,

only they’re not in my head,

they don’t tell me what to do,

they just make shit up and condemn,

pretend a swat team is coming

to terminate me.

Each time I believe and fear

a thousand imminent deaths.

I just want the quick quiet one,

because how do I walk away

from my own mind