A Passionate Life
Everyone has a passion; a talent, a knack, a love for something in life. You do it with all your heart and your soul. Whether it is fitness, business enterprise, social work, teaching, welding, theatrical design, being a great father, etc., it is your gift, your skill, your powerful strength. It is your contribution to the world. Encourage people who do not believe in their talent, cannot recognise it, or think it is unimportant to discover it, foster it, and realise its importance.
Includes my award-winning poem “No Asians. Your Desire.”
I feel deeply sad for the people whose passions and talents are kept from the world. The starving the first world refuses to feed. The sick the advanced world leaves unable to breathe. Their dreams and life goals may not be fulfilled. If you are reading this, your dreams and the dreams of those you encourage just may be. Share this post with a friend you believe in and want to help today.
Contains my human rights/social justice poem “Road Kill.”
Few have the privilege of reaching their full potential. They may not have access to education or the benefit of wealth. They may lack powerful connections. They may not have time. Unfortunate and unfair as this is, I believe we must use what privilege and strength we are blessed with to achieve what you can achieve during your brief life.
For the last two and a half years I have been resigned to full-time administrative work. When I applied I had no idea that my singing and poetry careers would take off or that my work as a freelance journalist would have to subside. 2014 began with the dream of publishing my first poetry manuscript. That dream ended when both my laptop and my backup hard-drive died. Nevertheless, poetry that I had sent out prior to that, was published; in WA’s premier literary journal Westerly, in two QLD journals (Social Alternatives, The Mozzie), online (Eureka Street), in Singapore (Galavant), and in three literary anthologies (The Stars Like Sand, Short and Twisted 2014, & Poetic Justice: Contemporary Australian Voices On Equality and Human Rights).
Contains my poem “Canning River Sunset.”
However, In the first week of December 2014 as I was writing a new poem after reading reams of Emily Dickinson, I realised that I was writing my first new poem in 8 months. This was both an achievement and a wake-up call. My dreams of having a poetry collection published were slipping away. I will never forget the words of a co-worker who expressed so damningly the truth about working in a situation that advances everyone else’s career but your own. “We work to make others’ dreams come true,” she said. I hope this situation is not familiar to you.
Contains my poem “Display Window.”
Addressing you, Dear Friend, I address myself in advising you not to resign your life to endure situations that become incompatible with your dreams. Regret is a deep chasm that cannot be filled. Of course, it is very difficult (even for those in the first world) to not spend their lives doing so; the artist’s paints cost money, the dancer must pay for tuition, and almost all professions require formal certification. Living expenses can themselves be impediments to living your passionate life. Then of course there are the unforeseeable tragedies of life. But if you are not currently living a passionate life, challenge yourself to consider what options are available to you. If you are like me, you may have to resign yourself to sacrifice but in the end you will smile. Consider this my post-NYE wake up call.
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Jake Dennis 