Poem - Bring the Cringe
Contents
About
Bring the Cringe
We all have those moment of humanity,
The ones that cause us to unhinge.
We create or witness a moment,
Where we watch someone bring out the cringe.
It’s your dunk’s uncle’s inappropriate wedding speech,
That ruins the whole wedding and makes the bride cry.
It’s your off-key best friend who thinks they are a undiscovered pop star,
So you sit at their debut performance thinking “I just want to die”.
It’s your date who boasts you they are a great dancer,
Then clears the dance floor like an electrocuted giraffe.
It’s your silly cousin’s first stand up comedy show,
So awkwardly silent except for your nervous laugh.
It’s your enlightened workmate,
Who begins documenting their every revelation.
Reads it at the staff Christmas party,
Anticipating a standing ovation.
Is the mum who thinks she’s a social queen,
Yet her obnoxious laugh scares people away and she hasn’t a clue.
It’s the highly awkward man at a party,
Whose conversation stops cold after “so what do you do”?
It’s reading this poem,
And second guessing everything you ever thought you were good at.
Including this poem.
... But this is not the end.
Of this poem.
For you see cringe has an antidote.
The antidote to cringe.... is humility.
Cridge itselfs is just a lack of awareness.
The people who are most endearing are the ones who realize it and own it.
Your endearing drunk uncle smiles and says,
“I fear this might get embarrassing, and I’m so drunk I might even fall,
But for me I am just bursting with pride tonight,
I have the deepest respect and love for you all”.
Your loveable lanky pop-star obsessed friend,
Who warns you that she can’t sing in key.
So when she jams out it makes your heart swell,
She is the super star of karaoke.
It’s the badass friend who hits the dance floor like an animal,
They don’t really care who is watching them dance.
They are the uncoordinated but joyful life of the party,
And so you all join the prance.
It’s every person you’ve ever known who is excited to learn.
Their ego isn’t attached to the outcome on their first go.
It’s every person you’ve ever known that realizes they can’t be good at everything,
But their personality and heart steals the show.
If you never have had a cringe moment.
Then I’m sorry but I feel sorry for you.
You’ve never pushed the boundaries,
The way all great artists and dreamers always do.
The first time you play with fire,
You should expect to get burned, scoursed or singed.
But with humility you’ll feel less awkward.
The next time that you bring the cringe.
-- by Andrew Noske
Inspiration
A wonderful new Australian friend inspired this poem when she pointed out that something I did was crigeworthy. I think she was right. I hope not all my books are cringe, but one of them is, and I kind of know it.... I wrote it so quickly and I got really defensive. At first I did the normal thing... I got defensive and hurt, but eventually she said "cridge is a lack of awareness", and then we decided the "humility is the antiodote to crige" and I jumped up and announced that I was excited to write a poem. Thirty minutes later I had this written, and what's interesting about this poem is that - for me at least - when you start to point out all the things that can make people cringe... well you second guess that maybe half of everything you've done in your life could be cringed at. Even this poem, I started thinking... what if my poem is crap and makes people cringe. Certainly I didn't take time to refine it, like I have for the only poems I've written that I am *somewhat* confident are any good.
But mabye that's the beauty of this poem. It has a meta element to it. It's hard to talk about awkwarness without feeling awkward. I'd like to own that!
Also remenber that all the most famous people have made somebody cringe. Not just Ricky Gervais, consider that Elvis, Madonna and Gaga have all made many people cringe by pushing boundaries. The two worst people in recent history, Trump and Elon.. they both make my skin crawl for different reasons. Certain people like Beyonce and Hugh Jackman maybe so very smooth that they seem cool to everyone, but I guarentee they've had cringe moments too. These moments make them human. Anyone too perfect, frankly, seems unnatural.
I hope this poem resonates!
Sincerely,
Andrew Noske
| Acknowledgements: Crystal for the idea, plus one of the versus! |
