For the past year I’ve been trying to release a new spoken word piece every month.
My latest release, Summer, came out yesterday.

7 tracks.
9 minutes and 30 seconds. 

Over the next few days I am going to write a little bit about each poem.
If you haven’t listened to the EP, give it a spin!
I think you’ll like it! 

Arcadia, MI

For me, Summer is a time filled with nostalgia; memories so close I can almost grab them or live them once again. I spend most of my time trying to get back to the past; fighting to be where I am, but usually failing only to remember all that has been before, but will never be again. 

But Summer is right now. 

And I’m trying to hold on.

The opening track is called ‘Arcadia, MI.’
Arcadia, Michigan holds a special place for my wife and her family, and now me.
It’s where I found rest after a whirlwind of years spinning and trying and falling, all before surrendering.
It’s where I asked Sarah’s parents for her hand in marriage.
It’s where Sarah and I got engaged.
It’s where I got to share poetry alongside my friends, Gabe and Josh.
It’s where I wrote this poem.
And where I ate two of the most delicious peaches I’ve ever had. 

“Yesterday, I ate two peaches.

“They were delicious” like the plums in
William Carlos Williams’ poem, ‘This Is Just To Say.’ 

If you can eat a peach without getting messy, you don’t know how to eat a peach. 

With each bite, the peach juice dripped down my arm,
tangling itself within a forest of right arm hair. 
But it was worth it. 
Even if I was left with a sticky mess to clean up. 
It was worth it. 

And this mess we are cleaning up continues to be worth it. 

What was and what has become.
Moving and peaches.
Writing and reminiscing.
Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory.
Chaos and clean up.
Tennessee and Texas. 

All for the two to become a better one.”

Soon Summer will give itself to Fall without a choice.
Like life, it just happens.
If I could choose, I’d let it be Summer forever, but then when would Starbucks release its Pumpkin Spice Latte and when would you wear your Ugg boots?

Fall is coming, but it isn’t here yet.
Soak up the summer for another day, before the leaves turn from green to red to brown and before they finally hit the ground. 

Listen here:
Spotify
Apple Music
Amazon Music

//

much love,

tanner olson
written to speak

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