For our first performance poetry seminar we were asked to write a piece on identity...

This is the first piece of performance poetry I have ever written so go easy on me ;)

Identity piece

So you look at me...
Please DON’T tell me what you see.
I’ll tell you who I am,
I’m a 21 year old...
Searching at university,
Searching for what I aspire to be,
To have,
Who I want ME to be.

It hasn’t always been like this
And you probably just think I’m just taking the piss
But this is the life I was given
And the place I was driven
To this pad and a pen
Again and again.

I look for love.
This was after you ripped my heart out of my chest –
Stamping on it,
Throwing it away for all to see.
Three years?
It meant nothing to you.
I would walk with my head dragging on the floor,
Because of you.
And all that you used to do,
To me...
I know what you’re thinking...me?
I seem like a strong individual...
Wouldn’t take stick?
Well, I did –
For three whole years of my life.
They were the happiest,
Yet the most abusive three years –
Lucky you,
Coming out on top.

It hasn’t always been like this
And you probably just think I’m just taking the piss
But this is the life I was given
And the place I was driven
To this pad and a pen
Again and again.

My confidence has soared now.
A new year,
A new start.
Like my mother said it would.
But it’s easy for her to preach her wisdom,
When she’s not even here.
His family were my family.
I’ve lost my mother, father and brother.


But I tell you what,
I’m bigger and better without him –
He may have been my other half to the jigsaw puzzle
But I’ve made my own game...
And it’s called my life.