Every once in a while I check out the visual list of top watched videos on YouTube …
I work in a high school, I am a mom of a houseful of teens, and so I desire to be as current and aware of the culture that these teens live in as is humanly possible on my end.
Last weekend I was was drawn to a particular video on the list … not because of the number of views (although over six million is a significant number of views), but because I recognized the face … the face of the man whose shared gift impressed me most at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 
Vancouver Winter Olympics.
“We Are More” is a spoken word poem that Shane Koyczan shared at that opening ceremony. With words and passion he defined all that is the nation of Canada, leaving our nation so stirred by national pride one could have mistaken us for our neighbors to the South. My favorite line from his poem was “so don’t let your luggage define your travels.”
And in the video I watched last weekend, he unpacked more baggage that we humans sometimes allow to defined define us … bullying.
In the first video is Shane speaking at the filming of his TED video of his entire poem. Although it is over twelve minutes, I recommend you watch that one!
This, second video is shorter (about seven and a half minutes), more visual, and I have included it because it is the one with over six million views (it is also the ‘cleaner’ video, the first has one line that ‘may’ be offensive to some) … I still recommend the first one … but, if you are short on time, go with number two … BUT spoken word is best heard when you can see the passion in the speaker speaking … just sayin’
itsawonderfilledlife 
His voice is what makes this video this video. His voice is what makes it so moving. You can tell he is feeling what the video is showing. It makes it real. I teared up as I watched it.
Marcos, you are so right! Shane’s voice speaks as powerfully as his words. And with the emotion of having personal experience with them, and the story they tell!
Carole
on I think that whether or not you like Shane’s poem or peofrrmance, it is really hard to deny that it will definitely help the poetry community locally and nationally, by forever linking poetry positively to Vancouver and Canada.Close to 3 billion people now see poetry on the same level as music and sport. Most of those people have probably never even considered poetry as art, let alone as something to be taken seriously. A percentage of that huge demographic will now go seek out poetry our poetry (some will even BUY poetry! Even a small percentage could translate into huge economic benefits. Lord knows, poets could use the exposure and the money.And by the way, I’m assuming that standing up in front of 60,000 people is pretty nerve-wracking and pretty brave. Most poets i know have a hard time reading in front of 20 or 30 people without crumpling into the fetal position from stage fright.Sadly, most of the negative commentors I’ve heard fall into that category and write work with very limited public appeal(hence why there are only 20 or 30 people at their readings).Shane’s peofrrmance has opened the door for us poets to build on his success.