I taught myself cartooning by copying my favorite characters when I was a kid. Later, after learning some drawing skills, I started making up my own characters. The ones with the strongest personalities always happened to be penguins. This was before Happy Feet and the The Penguins of Madagascar; before endless penguin gifts from friends and penguins in pop culture eventually made me tire of them.
Expressing myself through cartoons, and later, through improv comedy, were important outlets for me as a shy student. Sometimes the silliness that came out freely in an improv game surprised my peers, who had always thought of me as quiet. The explanation I gave for my sudden surge of goofy theatrical presence was that I had penguins in my head.
In high school, I wrote this poem. If I were to write something similar now, I would re-think the comparisons to and language used about mental illness. But this is a relic of a different time in my development, and so I'll share it as it was written, changing only a pronoun or two. I'll even leave a spelling/vocabulary mistake, together with an imperfect rhyme-see if you can find it!
How would you describe creativity or rushes of inspiration? The maker movement has convinced me that anyone can develop creative thinking skills. And yet, to some people, thinking outside-the-box just comes more naturally. What metaphor would you use to describe it?
My Happy Insanity
Insanity,
Insanity
The penguins in
my head
Ride shopping
carts down Christmas trees
Buy olives
stuffed with lead
Insanity's the
mark of me-
An artist who's
disturbed
If you could
understand my mind,
You wouldn't be
perturbed
I think of
things unusual;
I see things
that are weird-
Like antelopes
with telescopes
In Uncle
Norman's beard
At night I
dance with haystacks-
The kind that
cannot see
They wish on
jars and smoke guitars-
Delightful
company!
Looking out the
window,
I see trees
dance in the wind
I start to
laugh hysterically
And watch brown
branches bend
Insanity,
Insanity
Why do people
stare at me?
I'm just as
normal as can be-
An artist who
has been set free
I don't do
drugs, I'm not deceived,
demented, or
delusioned
My penguins and
insanity
Are simply art
allusions
They're symbols
of creativity
Inside an
artist's head
That give me
inspiration when
I'm lying in my bed
My penguins
give me color schemes
Or words to
make a rhyme
They sneak into
my thoughts and dreams
At any given
time
So let the
purple penguins jump
Let slippers
stand and sing
Let imagination
run insane-
A dull world's
seasoning
There's nothing
wrong with being strange
If that's the
way you're made
Embrace your
creativity
And never let
it fade
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