“Common Ground” by Colleen Cassidy
Poet and creative Colleen Cassidy joined 20B at our live event on October 28th, 2021 to share her spoken word poem, “Common Ground.” The poem can be read in full below.
Common Ground
Spoken Word by Colleen Cassidy
A perception of space, time and self
You
Yes... you...
You found yourself
You found yourself isolated, face to face with your space
in silent grace
You bought that carpet
You found that couch
Your nana had that napkin holder
You fed the birds
You latticed the leaves
Your things are the steady curation of you
You have a daily snapshot of time passed
You painted the paintings
You were part of the art, embodied the art
You lived and breathed your space
You then see your space as a piece
of the puzzle in a much bigger place,
the place that makes you
You will spend the greatest days of your life here
You will hit your lowest lows here
You are your best self here
You are made into who you are here
You feel as if your roots have always been here
You feel your toes in the floor and your fingers in the walls
That carpet is where you’d learn to dance again alone
That couch is where you’d watch the world unfold
That leaf lattice would be your daily connection to the outside world
You resonate with your core, and for the first time
it somehow makes sense
You feel like the light is different but it’s the brightness
of enlightenment
making it intense
You sense
that this is the place you love more than any place you’ve been before
You see every fracture as part of a whole
You know why each piece is in its place
You grasp the fold in time with the same familiarity as you
grip the fold in your favorite blanket
You have seen that predictability is liquid
You tread that liquid to find the common ground of hope to survive the now
You know you’ll keep swimming until you graze it within the waves you’ve been thrown
You touch it and it doesn’t feel unknown
You know it’s the only thing that feels like home
You keep feeling the drag from below
You keep sensing that light from above
You have discovered the pathway pulling you upward
You can look to your side and know you won’t drown
You may not even be able to trust the ‘how’
You never fathomed you’d exist in this skin
You recognize however
from within
something has shifted
You see the collective forces that keep you from being drifted
You hold the liquid gold in your fingers that mends the fractures in the walls
and found the souls who ground your toes
in the midst of the falls
You harness the power of the waves you once tread
to create the interconnecting thread
Blind ambition brought to fruition
You radiate the same radical light that brought you here
You’ve discovered the sound that articulates emotion clear
You are a mirror
of what surrounds you
You see wholeness in humanity
You no longer single handedly
hold the world above
You are enough
We are enough
Together, sonic love
About Colleen Cassidy
She/Her/Hers
As someone who has always seen the world through a unique lens and in need of a way to paint the picture of this vision, Colleen has always found the clearest vessel in emoting was poetry. She writes from the premise that regardless of background, her verses are relatable to the audience. And with the intent of each individual identifying and translating in their own personal context.
A curious soul with interests in varying avenues, she is a licensed architect by trade currently based out of Kansas City, working on national and international commercial projects. She was born and raised in Colorado, as well as having extended roots in Wyoming. Colleen is passionate about pursuits in all realms of built, performing, and visual arts and strives to promote community engagement with drawing people together in meaningful ways. She is one of the founding members of a creative collective - Sonic Love Collective - and loves being inspired and influenced by the talented individuals she surrounds herself with. Colleen also has yearly involvement in Burning Man as part of a theme camp, as well as serving as a 3D BIM Artist for the virtual Burn that took place in 2020.