I AM
By Brandon Kazen-Maddox
I am my mother’s son.
A product of my environment.
A lover of movement and creation.
Inspiration and innovation.
I believe that success is in the eye of the beholder
And that my happiness is my responsibility.
I believe in feeding my body what it knows it needs
And in honoring my emotions with the space to breathe.
I believe in elegance and eloquence,
In style and grace.
In the eons of worlds in the lines of our face.
In passion and beauty and the feeling of reverence
In how family evokes all the ghosts of remembrance.
I am grateful for
Each day that I breathe.
And when the time comes,
I will be ready to leave.
Grateful to the people
Who’ve helped guide the way,
And learned from all those
Whose paths led astray.
I am a human who uses sign language to think;
Crafting colorful tapestries in three-dimensional ink.
My tribe is a Deaf one,
Where I find people alike.
In our thoughts and our actions,
Our joys and our strife.
I live for these moments
Of rhythm and rhyme.
With the feet and the hands,
And the heart and the mind.
I AM
Choreopoem
This is a danced interpretation of an original American Sign Language poem written by Brandon Kazen-Maddox.