It all started with this animation/short film by Bradley Bell:
[youtube]nEbIuDuW7l8[/youtube]

In which he interpreted “The Laughing Heart”, a poem written by Charles Bukowski, and spoken by Tom Waits. This should have been an easy cut-and-paste video/text post on my Tumblr, where I usually store quick-strike things of interest and inspirational value. But part of the being of what has been a product of a Poetry class back in my Undergrad/University days just couldn’t let it go and be done with. The textual format just didn’t have a resounding echo to me as it should.

A part of me just wanted much more to come out of each line. ((What is a line in Poetry?)) “Much more,” but not too much; though I have always been intrigued with a little bit of concrete poetry. ((What is concrete poetry?))

Anyways, the most common version that I found was formatted like this:

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

I recited it aloud more than a couple of times. Then progressed to formatting it like so:

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

be on the watch.

there are ways out.

there is a light somewhere.

it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.

be on the watch.

the gods will offer you chances.

know them.

take them.

you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.

and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.

your life is your life.

know it while you have it.

you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

I then gave Life & Death their proper due diligence by capitalizing them (amongst the starting word of a definitive line). It’s the least we can do, as they are a part of us whether we like it or not.

Death is more universal than Life; everyone dies but not everyone lives.

Meanwhile, I then found some more insight via this new Levi’s ad campaign called, “Legacy“.
[youtube]KT16DcHcjRA[/youtube]

I felt that the narrative rhythm in this piece was different; just a bit more inspirational to me personally than that of Tom Waits’. ((Tom Waits reads Charles Bukowski.)) It just grabbed more of my soul per se.

Last but not least, I added it all up, measured twice, and came up with this version:

Your Life is your Life.
Don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.

Be on the watch.
There are ways out.

There is a light somewhere.
It may not be much light but
  it beats the darkness.

Be on the watch.
The Gods will offer you chances.
Know them.
Take them.

You can’t beat Death but
  you can beat Death in Life, sometimes.
And the more often you learn to do it,
  the more light there will be.

Your Life is your Life.
Know it while you have it.

You are marvelous.
The Gods wait to delight
  in you.

You might notice other small things in there but that story is for another time. ((Here is a horizontal layout of the revisions discussed above. It might provide you with a better point of view and/or differentiation between revisions.)) Though I can tell you that I had mix emotions in emphasizing “light” (as “Light”) and “darkness” (as “Darkness”) as those two are what people struggle with everyday as well. But I just felt that in this particular evocative literature, the piece spoke more of Life and its counterpart, Death.

But then again, that’s just me—”your Life is your Life.”