start something that matters.

I actually thought this was pretty irritating at first,
but he really has something to say.

There is a box suppressed deep in our chests

Where forgotten dreams and consuming passions are laid to rest

This wooden crate is packed tight with:

Crumpled sketches on coffee stained napkins

Brilliant ideas from an enlightening conversation

A painted canvas full of life and imperfections

Notebooks spilling with business plans, poems, and powerful intentions

We’ve all heard about the bottom billion

  How 72 million children can’t attend school

How 22,000 of them die daily from poverty’s rule

How HIV, Malaria, and Diarrhea are preventable, even treatable

How we have the tools

Yet millions still suffer and die because what they’re missing is me

What they’re missing is you

What the world is missing is what you have always longed to do:

To provide water, clothing, shelter, shoes

And to do so following your boxed-in muse

So I invite you

To unpack your crate

Find your spark, light your fuse

And start something

That the world can truly use

Then when your box is empty

And your tools are in hand

Flip your box upside down

to use it as your voices’ stand

Shout your dreams, wave your banners

Plant a seed, pen tomorrow’s chapter

I say to you standers

You box top dancers

Paint all you painters

Paint something that captures

Write all you writers

Write something that answers

Build all you builders

Build something that shelters

And start all you starters

Start something that matters.

Powerful poem, don't you think?

And a lesson to myself not to judge what people say by how they look or sound.