"A Message From Death" by Adam Roa

I had the opportunity to meet Adam Roa virtually via Zoom call. You probably know Adam best for his spoken word poem, “You are who you’ve been looking for” with the famous line “Treat yourself like someone you love”.

On the zoom call, he performed a poem that isn’t available publicly or recorded in any other capacity other than what I’m about to play for you, which is a raw and authentic production of his thoughts. He wrote it a few years ago as a specific project but it resurfaced recently, and it rings really true given the state of our world and the Coronavirus. It is titled, “A message from death,” and it speaks to the cycle of life and death that we’re all subject to, how we currently receive that reality, and what opportunities it presents for us moving forward within our own growth and development.

It’s such a great poem. First how he articulates the recycling of resources and how everything alive inside you today has been alive before you and will be alive again after you. He uses incredible metaphors like cocoons and natural contrasts like the night and the sun. And it all comes to a point when he describes that the only given in life is change, and embracing change is embracing opportunities for growth.