What REAL means to me
How the most honest poem I ever wrote became the truest thing I've ever lived.
I want to start sharing new poems and videos with you, but before I do, I thought it’d be good to give you an idea of what my previous works feel and sound like.
And what better way to do that than to tell you about the best poem I’ve ever written and recorded — at least to me.
What is REAL?
REAL is the title track from the extended play (EP) project of the same name. My friend CmoneY produced the entire project, and another friend, Kaesa, created the above lyric video. This was way back in 2018, when I was a 27-year-old trying to figure things out — to be fair, I’m still trying to figure things out, even if I’ve figured quite a few things out in the past 8 years. Lots of figuring out, such is life.
The story behind REAL
I can’t remember the exact day when I wrote the poem (I should really date my pieces), but I think it was the year before the project. What I do remember quite vividly is that I wrote it after an Nth breakup — of course I did, everyone knows an artist’s best works require a dose of character development.
Also, I know what you’re thinking, “Nth?” What can I say? A guy was trying to find love in the hard dating streets of Nairobi. Roughest dating streets on Earth. You find love here; you can find it anywhere.
The point is, I wrote REAL because I was tired. Tired of trying and failing. Tired of putting my all into something and ending up with nothing. Tired of not having something... real. So I wrote about what I wanted in a relationship.
Side note: a few years before this, in 2015, a poet I admire, Bassey Ikpi, told me, during a workshop she’d invited me to, that I should write about my own experiences — that I should write something... real. Back then, I was a young poet who sometimes wrote poems that sounded good. The title REAL might have been inspired by this interaction as well.
Why is REAL my favorite poem?
Not only is REAL my favorite poem because of how honest it is, but it’s also my favorite because I consider it the foundation of everything I’m blessed to call mine today.
See, on the night of the EP launch, when I first performed REAL, there was a certain lady in the audience. I’d known her since uni days, when we were acquaintances and neighbors. She’d heard that I was launching an EP and was looking for something interesting to do that weekend, so she attended.
According to her, she loved the poem and would listen to it often in the days that followed. I do have that effect on people (pats self on back). Thing is, she too was tired of failed relationships — I’m not even kidding, the dating streets of Nairobi are like Character Development Premium Pro Max, ask anyone who lives here.
A few months later, she and I started talking on Facebook. We mostly talked about our favorite show, This Is Us (this would go on to inspire the title of my first album, Us, released in 2019, before the pandemonium).
Anyway, I asked her if she’d like to get coffee sometime, and that date led to another. We started dating and days turned into months; months turned into a year; a year turned into seven and counting at the time of writing. She and I have built a life together, gotten married, and are still building a family. Till this day, she argues that the coffee date wasn’t actually a date. I ask her to look at her left hand for proof that it was indeed a date.
Other side note: she still loves the poem so much that she asked me to include quotes from it on a page, and she framed it.
But you see what I mean by REAL being the foundation, right? Everything I talk about in the poem is what I experience today with her. The most honest poem I ever wrote became the truest thing I’ve ever lived.
REAL is everything I have; everything I have is... real.
Listen to my projects
If you love the song REAL even half as much as I do, I highly recommend (self plug) listening to the EP and some of my other projects, including:
Us — A live performance album recorded with an incredible audience back in 2019! Us is part interactive storytelling, where I let the audience decide what goes onto the album, and part true story of the early days of my relationship with my then girlfriend - now wife.
Un Jour (One Day) — A piece recorded in both French and English with the same message: Know that I lived.
Listen to all of my projects here.
Ivan
If you like my writing, poetry, and music, consider subscribing to see what else I get up to and create. I’m on a journey to create again after a long hiatus, and I’m documenting my authentic exploration of art, AI, and self along the way.