Sonnet 1: Pep Talk (with footnotes)*

Por: Angel Perdomo

The pep talk in the form of self-reliance, as photographed by the author.

Don't run away from the classic cliche,*

Don't be concerned about being the next Che.*

Answers are usually in the middle,

Middle way,* stay away from the idle,*

And don't be enamoured by the hustle.

You'll find a way, you'll always have yourself.

You have your whole life to build your castle,

Trust the method, no need to flog the self.*

Will you ever? Can you ever be 'kay?

No, there's no answers for the wrong questions

Accept pain, embrace joy, that is the way

It's inwards, don't look for constellations.

It’s one step at a time and you know it!

Real question is: Are you doing it?

* Each stanza explores the things I say to myself—in the form of a pep talk—when I catch myself negatively thinking and talking to myself.. The first stanza is about originality. The second stanza is about not working hard enough and not being at the stage you want in life. The third stanza deals with fear, and how it leads us astray. The final stanza comes as a challenge, as if we are throwing the towel.

* The cliche in this poem refers to more traditional writing styles, like the sonnet.. I followed the number of lines and metre used in Shakespearean sonnets, with my only original contributions being a rhyming scheme that differs from that of Shakespeare, and starting the poem with an answer and ending it with a question (most sonnets typically present a thesis at the beginning that gets resolved by the end). In the pursuit of being creative and original I sometimes get lost in the idea of having to be unique, special, or groundbreaking—when the reality is, there is beauty in the ordinary.

* I am making a reference to Che Guevara, the Argentinian revolutionist and member of the communist movement in Latin America in the 1950s.

* The “Middle way” refers to the Buddhist belief in avoiding extremes.

* In philosophy, “the self” is the individual’s own reflective consciousness.

* I was playing here with the idea of the word “idle” being a homophone of idol; this at the same time refers to El Che or any other idol.