Grow Up With Me - Keaton Henson

UPDATE: Thank you so much for visiting my blog! Just to let you know, I no longer post here. My current blog is at http://theleaningbookshelf.blogspot.co.uk/ if you fancy having a look at my current writing. Eleanor x

Let’s run in fields and fear the dark together

Fall off swings and burn special things

And both play outside in bad weather

Let’s eat badly

Let’s watch adults drink wine and laugh at their idiocy

Let’s sit in the back of the car,

Making eye contact with strangers driving past

Making them uncomfortable

Not caring, not swearing, don’t f***

Let’s both reclaim our superpowers

The ones we all have and lose with our milk teeth

The ability not to fear social awkwardness

To panic when locked in the cellar

Still sure there’s something down there

And while picking from pillows each feather

Let’s both stay away from the edge of the bed

Forcing us closer together

Let’s sit in public, with ice cream all over both our faces

Sticking our tongues out at passers by

Let’s cry

Let’s swim

Let’s everything

Let’s not find it funny lest someone falls over

Classical music is boring

Poetry baffles us both

There’s nothing that’s said is what’s meant

Plays are long, tiresome, sullen and filled

With hours that could be spent rolling down hills

And grazing our knees on cement

Let’s hear stories and both lose our innocence

Learn about parents and forgiveness

Death and morality

Kindness and art

Thus losing both of our innocent hearts

But at least we won’t do it apart.

Not many things send me into a state of pure relaxed bliss, but ‘Grow up with me’ by Keaton Henson is one of those things. His writing style is the type that makes you want to write beautiful poems yourself, but when you try, you inevitably fail to write something as exquisite so just you go back to listening to Keaton’s recording of it on Youtube, letting his calm relaxed voice lull you into a sleepy slumber of literary ecstasy. The words describe my life perfectly, and all I ever want in life. The perfect simplicity of them, and how they fit together like pieces of a jigsaw, and roll off your tongue as you whisper them sleepily at 3:00am makes them feel like they were written only for you.

The childlike nature of the poem really encapsulates the feeling you get when you meet someone new, someone who understands you perfectly and knows what you are thinking even before you do. Another thing I love about the poem, is how it shows exactly what teenagers of my age are feeling. Keaton Henson describes what it’s like to grow up, how you don’t really want to, but you have to.  How growing up with someone you care about numbs the pain and nerves of stepping out of the whimsical world of childhood and into the real world.

As I mentioned before, this poem makes you want to replicate the effortless of his poetry, by writing your own. However it’s not as easy as it seems, many a person has tried and failed to put their feelings onto paper as Henson does, but never quite masters the perfection of the words he selects. In general, poetry it easier to write if it rhymes, as the words you can use are limited, but the most beautiful poetry is that that does not rhyme, as it seems as though raw emotion has been spilt onto the page. Keaton shows the best of both worlds as he includes rhymes in some places where you need them, so your lips can slip easily from one word to the next when reading aloud , adding to the perfection of the poem.

I will enjoy this poem for years to come. I think that is why I like poetry so much, you can read it wherever you want, however you want and as many times as you want and it will never change. It will always be there to comfort you when you’re sad, to make you sad when you’re happy and to put you in that melancholy mood that we seem so inclined to become addicted to and to take you back to the first time you read it.

Watch the video here!