Penticton resident and esteemed poet Shayne Koyczan has released a poem in response to yesterday’s shocking shootings in his city.
Koyczan, who graduated from Okanagan College’s Penticton Campus in 1998, rose to international fame during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics where he performed his poem “We Are More” to millions of viewers.
The slam poet still resides in Penticton when not touring the world and Monday’s tragic shooting inspired him to write and release a poem titled “Everywhere.”
“The town I live in is small. Maybe 34,000 people? It's not tiny, but because it sits between two big lakes there's no room for it to grow any bigger. I'm okay with that,” wrote Koyczan introducing the poem.
“I like to live in a small place. I can ride my bike from one end of town to the other in 20 minutes. I can walk the street at night without my mind racing to collide with fear. Small places often feel removed from the rest of the issues that plague the world. We busy ourselves with yard work and watch the news thinking that the worst of it "could never happen here".
Today 4 people were killed by a shooter in our small town. A place where violence like that could never happen. We were told to stay in our homes while streets were closed off and locked down. We waited for updates while we could still hear the helicopter circling overhead.
Everywhere
It used to be
that our nightmares
held no territory
in the waking world
the monster of homelessness
and the hellions of addiction
were problems
better left for elsewhere
violence
was a sharp
and broken stick
not long enough
to reach us here
in our tucked away corner of the globe
it used to be
that when our horrors
did somehow spill out
over the threshold of sleep
it was only
into the places
thatwere far away
places we could pray for
and think about
from a safe distance
places that were
"not here"
but what used to be
is no longer
and what's left
is all that is
today
here is there
the place we thought
we would never live.
