We all learn by doing…
We all repeat, emulate, and mimic others –
especially when we are young
and still learning how to use
the gifts that we were born with
to get through life…
we are all different and we are meant to be individuals,
but when we are young we are told
to “act normal” and to “fit in”;
however, the older you get, the more you see,
and the more people that you meet,
you come to realise that no one
is like anybody else –
no matter how hard they might try to be
and no matter how much they try to convince
themselves and those around them…
now more than ever, especially online
and behind the mask of their avatars,
some people always try to act
and communicate as if they are somebody else –
some people act nice and speak
as if they have nothing to hide,
but in secret even the quietest
and the seemingly most innocent
can be as loud as a banshee when it comes
to their own personal opinions
because they are the ones
with the most concerning problems…
some people are not always as they seem,
because everyone has an alter ego –
a side of their personality that rarely gets to be seen
because they would not conform
to the picture that other people might have of them
if they were asked to describe them,
and then there are those who are so damaged
from a personal trauma that they have learned
to survive by acting on instinct
and attempting to make others
feel like they are in control
when they are the ones attempting
to manipulate things from the shadows
as if controlling a puppet on a string…
we all learn in different ways,
at different times, and at different speeds,
what we need to know and what we need to do
to make the best of the situations
we all find ourselves in –
some that we never thought we would
ever find ourselves in;
but that is the power that each of us possesses
and that is the ability that we all have need to use
throughout our lives when we have to go with the flow,
to think on our feet,
to become someone and something else,
and use a technique that some actors have been using as means to achieve the desired effect of
transforming into a character
by making the same choices for themselves
as the persona that they wish to effortlessly portray –
in the same way that other songs and sounds
can easily be imitated and incorporated
into the call of a mockingbird.
Act
My Poem “The Art of The Act”
Every performer is a character…
everyone who performs on a stage,
on a screen, to a camera, to a microphone,
from a speaker has to adopt a persona…
every actor, every singer, every politician,
every comedian, every personality,
every person known for doing something
or for being somebody has to embody
a certain magic and emanate a certain gravity
in order to make their audience
fall under their spell…
everybody who has a gift
and who has this hunger within
to craft something of their own creation
and their own imagination
that they want to share with other people –
something that people like,
something that people understand,
something that people respond to
and empathize with – is an artist
with a heart and a soul deeper
than the deepest well…
everybody who plays at being someone
for a long time naturally has moments
when the character that they play
seeps into and starts to influence
the actions and the boards walked
by a performer during the moments
when they are being who they really are,
behind the mask of the character that they portray,
when they are doing the day to day
activities of real life…
every performer sometimes has moments
when they find it hard to see the dividing line
between one side of their personality and the others –
which can ultimately lead to moments when performers
look in the mirror and they ask themselves: who am I?
every performer wears a costume,
every performer has their own voice,
every performer longs to dive into a world
and be someone else – even if it is for a short time –
and every performer has their own back-story,
as well as the story that they tell themselves
within their mind which they are at the centre of…
every performer is a magician –
even if they do not directly advertise
that they perform magic…
every performer is an artist of an art…
every performer is constantly a student
and a teacher of those who follow them
and to those who they are walking
in the footprints of who are sometimes
so influential to a performer
that their performances are considered mythic…
every performer – no matter who they are –
in order to continue to do what they do
and to continue to love how they choose to live
often times have to play and practice at
being someone else and at having to act out
the performance at being the person
at the centre of the art their act.
Mark The Poet 