You Don’t Have To Be, By Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

Jeni,
You don’t have to be
Jerry Seinfeld

Richard,
You don’t have to be
Dickenson

Her wise words
About living under
The microscope of fame

Your sitcom did not gain
You were somebody
Before you got sold that game

That if you fail
You are worth less
If you fail

You are worthless
You didn’t try
Didn’t try your best

Yes you did
You made me laugh
At my time of despair

On a dark path
It snapped me out
I came about

You had the talent
You had the art
You were there for me

Before I fell apart
You didn’t get that start
But that is ok

You didn’t have to
End your life that way
I wish you had chosen to stay.
(end)

This poem is an ode to the not well known comedian Richard Jeni. Unfortunately he got depressed because his career did not take off like he wanted it to. His sitcom got cancelled and that pushed him over the edge. He will never know how he snapped me out of a deep depression after a woman broke up with me because of his “Love Songs” act. He was a great comedian, and if he had only been able to do bars or local his entire life, he still would have been a great comedian.

Emily Dickinson also wrote a poem “I Am Nobody, Who Are You”, a very short two stanza poem about the drudges and downside of being in the spotlight.

The most important thing to me is mental health, go for what you want in life, who knows. But also know that the higher up you go the fewer spots there are. And there are far more talented unknows who will never be nationally/internationally known than the ones you know.