8 years later and I still get goosebumps

Shane is, in my opinion, one of the best poets of this generation. His poems feel like they were written for everyone that hears them, and they way he recites them is beautiful.

When someone looks at you like Hannah looks at him, you know you are loved.

these six minutes. these six minutes are an achievement of a lifetime.

The way Hannah looks at him is genuinely beautiful.

I'll never understand why people will attack each other randomly in the comments for such a thoughtful & inspiring video(?)! Cheer up people and try to 'get' the fact that I'm posting these videos to uplift people and offer insight through music. Not to offer a platform where people can disrespect each other at a distance! "So, when I call you 'sis or 'bro... it's not lightly..." This channel is my message to the world. And it's a good one. So stop the 'hating' and pay attention...

Never going to forget this piece. Even 7 years later.

"because when i call you "sis" or bro"... it's not lightly. and when i ask you to remember, it's because the future isn't what it used to be." why can't i watch this without weeping?

For you reading this right now, Have a nice day

So you believe this isn't pure, raw art? What sad times we live in.

One day I hope somebody will watch me the way hannah watches shane... absolutely wonder

This live version is a million times better than the album version

Magic. We all forgot and its why society is so divided. We have lost the magic of childhood.

Amazing

I watch this often . . . thank you! It always makes me cry.

Those great poets you love would rebuke you. They showed love to all forms of poetry no matter what. If it came from the heart that was all that mattered.

5:29 is a proof of how strong Shane's poems are to people xP

When I stop sharing this, you are all invited to attend my funeral and remember...

"We leave scars on the sun," That was the point I literally lost it and burst into tears. Damn....

Maybe, but in ten years I will still remember this guy fondly. You, I'll probably have forgotten about later this afternoon.

Passionate. Profound and powerful. This is a fantastic combination of brilliant writing and artful presentation. The violinist is beautiful and talented and the young man's performance is heart-filling. He conveys this delicate balance between nostalgia and a stark awareness of our fragile hold to this beautiful life. I was blown away. Just beautiful.

Mine too, Patty, and I've been on this planet nearly 6 decades. I will never get so jaded I can't be moved and inspired by things.

Oh god, the groan at 5:28! I'm cackling with laughter and my roommates think I'm going crazy!

Shane saved my life

I come back to this far less than i should

I have long thought that there is only one human being and it has 7,000,000,000 faces. The things we hate in others are the things we have not loved or healed in our selves. I want to thank you Shane because when I see you, and listen to you, I actually do see a better future is possible. Leave a scar upon the sun.

Only Shane Koyczan could make me both laugh and cry hysterically in one performance.

I don't know how I ended up here, but I know I don't want to leave. Thx.

5:30 "EHHUUUUUUUUUUGHH!!!"

Can't believe this was published on Jan 22, 2013. Thank you reddit for upvoting this to the front page!

I would love to hang out with Shane.

Brings you back to when you were a kid. The infinite possibilities and misguided innocence that made life feel alive. Defined by the spirit inside with a hunger for everything new and scary. As our life's seasons go by we tend to forget how things were when we were children. This poem is absolutely epic.

How do I like this more than once?

he's one of the reasons I'm a proud to be a canadian

The groaning at 5:28 is definitely some guy jizzing in his pants at how amazing this is.

I can't believe this was 10 years ago. I think more than that, actually? I saw an old friend today and it made me think of this. Thank you.

Oh my god, this guy is amazing. He speaks so articulately and so passionately. It's like he knows just how beautiful and painful his emotions are and channels these complex feelings learned through life experience straight into other people with the most incredibly simple phrasing. This is perfect language.

Modern poet really does exist.

The random noise you hear at 5:29 is the sound of someone's mind getting blown.

This World is Empty! We need more words like yours Shane.

This guy is my favorite poet by far

How on earth would this not be considered poetry?

love this mans poems

I watch this... more often than sometimes.

His words are soo powerfull and evokes soo much emotion but the girl with voilin i am swerving in the expressions her face creates , so much soul❤

I agree. But if I told you that if your face was recorded during this video, you'd have the same reactions on your face - pure captivation. If I told you that as passionate as Shane is in his performance, if you took Hannah away, this deliverance wouldn't even be half as potent or meaningful. That's the power of music. Bravo!

this guy's got the words.

i think anything written by this guy is great!

Just pure masterpiece of a performance. I have kept coming back to this video for years, and somehow it gets even better every time i watch it.

Heard this song in rehab, relapsed to it, listened to it through my divorce, and I’m still listening to it drunk now. Beautiful soundtrack to a difficult year.

Omg, I stumbled upon this video and ...... Wow , just .... Wow , this is beautiful.

So this passes off as poetry now? What sad times we live in.

That violinist really shows what i was feeling. At first it was funny, then it was real and raw

At 5:30 that is the sound of someone realizes the beauty of this poem and realizing the message this poem is conveying. They realize that this isn’t just something to pawn off...its a life changing poem

Please release the violin on its own. Probably one of the mot beautiful melodics i have ever heard.

So go and live all the days of your life ... Beautiful !!!

This is amazing. Starts off funny and then builds into a motivational speech that we can all be more and do more than we ever expected. The backing music fits perfectly.

Hauntingly and powerfully poignant. Incredibly beautiful.

Word ninja and dream provocateur. A synapse scintillating painter of words, I just love this guy!

It doesn't NEED a coherent "message", you are allowed to IDENTIFY with the EMOTIONS evoked, you are allowed to INTERPRET what you hear. Just listen.

Seeing him smile made me smile. And his voice is so amazing and inspiring.

This video... This video has gotten me through some tough times. I suffer from CPTSD, severe depression, generalized anxiety, and suicidal ideation /compulsions. Two years ago I was the lowest I've ever been so I leaned on this video. I was reaching for a bottle of pills every day. It took everything I had to walk myself into a hospital and say "I'm not okay." This video reminds me of the time I've lost and the time I have left. I couldn't get out of bed two years ago, but now, I'm on my own two feet again. It's taken a tremendous amount of work to get here but I am here. And this video saved my life.

He is a God.

This just gave me faith in people again. Thank you.

he talks as well with his hands as he does with his words

goose bumps beautifull these two young people Dorien greetz from the Netherlands

Remember how we forgot? Remember how no one ever really died in the wars we fought? Because each gunshot came from our finger tips And we never really kept them loaded just in case Cause each enemy was a friend and none of it was about oil, religion, or land It was all just pretend Remember how we used to bend reality Like we were circus strong men Like our imaginations were in shape then Like we were all ninjas trained in the deadly art of "did not" Like "I totally got you" "Did not" Remember how we forgot? Remember how our parents told us never to look directly into the sun And how we were their son And so we never looked directly into the mirror, in fear that we would go blind Remember how we used to find any old reason just to call someone we were crushing on Like we could just pawn off our sense of embarrassment Buy a chunk of courage that would last just long enough to have us askin 'em about math and stuff And how stuff was just stuff Like I heard you're getting braces, now braces somehow were and still are kinda hot Remember how we forgot? Remember how we all caught mono and our folks would go, "oh the kissing disease" And our first steps into gangstahood had us saying “mother please.” Even though we’d never really kissed anyone Even though we never did half the things we said we’d done We just spun yarn like Rumpelstiltskin spun gold We told ghost stories never realizing we would one day ourselves become ghosts Haunting the hallways of schools Breaking all the rules of silence in the library But we had no chains to rattle No voice to battle the fact that we had no vocal chords We had only finger nails on chalk boards We would scream, shout, and yell trying to tell ourselves what experience can teach is What no teacher taught Remember how we forgot? Once upon a time, we were young Our dreams hung like apples Waiting to be picked and peeled And hope was something needing to be reeled-in So we can fill the always empty big fish bin with the one that got away And proudly say that "this time, impossible is not an option" Because success is so akin to effort and opportunity they could be related So we took chances We figure skated on thin ice Believed that each slice of life was served with something sweet on the side And failure was never nearly as important as the fact that we tried That in the war against frailty and limitation We supplied the determination it takes to make ideas and goals the parents of Possibility And we believe ourselves to be members of this family Not just one branch on one tree But a forest whose roots make up a dynasty So when I call you sis or bro It’s not lightly And when I ask you to remember It’s because the future isn't what it used to be So remember now Pay tribute to every sacrifice laid upon the altar of somehow For all the times Somehow we overcame Somehow we pushed on Somehow we’ve gone the distance And in going there we possessed the freedom to map the uncharted lands of any and Everywhere We are unbound Six feet above the underground where we will all one day rest So until then Test the limits Test the boundaries and borders As if the headquarters of potential lay just beyond the world's edge Let the belief that hope belongs to us all Be the pledge you take to make the unachievable as inconceivable as the false fact hat We were never here We were here And our memories are as dear to us as every slow motion moment or held breath So remember every instance before death Every first kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe so Let us go the distance once more Let us remember all the moments that were and were not Like the point is something we can get and what we can get is what we got Because all we have are the times between the moments we connect each dot So live and remember Burn like an ember capable of starting fires Like each moment inspires the next Like memories are the context we put ourselves in So that life becomes the next of kin we need to notify in case of a big bang or Extinction level event Let now be our advent Let us live like we meant it Let us burn like we mean it Because this world doesn't give a shit if we end in a train wreck or a car crash If our story ends with a dot or dash If we were dust or ash Because all we were is all we’ll be And all we are is the in-between of so far, so good So forget every would, could, or should not Forget remembering how we forgot Live like a plot twist exists now and in memory Because we burn bright Our light leaves scars on the sun Let no one say we will be undone by time's passing The memories we are amassing will stand as testament That somehow we bent minds around the concept That we see others within ourselves That self-knowledge can't be found on bookshelves So who we are has no bearing on how we appear Look directly into every mirror Realize our reflection is the first sentence to a story And our story starts: "We were here."

The best thing I have heard in quite a while.

"Remember nobody ever died in the wars we fought? Because each gunshot came from our finger tips and we never kept them loaded just in case"

Life is fleeting, nothing is permanent, not even life itself. Those precious moments that fill the soul, are what fulfill our unique individual roles. Dont look a the future, nor the past in present time is where imagination lasts. But cherish those things that uniquely fulfill you. Because in the end it was alway and only just you.

5:29 someones mind was blown!

This is the first time I've actually enjoyed poetry

This so damn beautiful and painful.

Beautiful... Buddha... profound. TY for your enlightenment.

5:29 That's me right there

He is an inspiration, he's such an inspiration.

man, I was feeling all those goosebumps during the final part of it until 5:30 when someone jizzed their pants *sigh*

to anyone reading this...you are worth it

i memorized this for school a poetry slam, my class won! (took hours)

Legendary Poem!

did anyone else here the weird grunt in the background around 5:30 ?

Life isn't about how many days you were alive, it's about how alive you were through your days.

5:28 DAT GROAN. some one was enjoying it lol

With the face of a child, but the wisdom and mind of an old man.

Who put the onions here?! ;-;

Love poetry and music.

@5:28 UHHHH!!!

I,ve watched this countless times it only gets better.

How she looks at him, that's how I want a woman to look at me.

The music makes ALL the difference.

Does anyone know where i can find the violin track shes playing?

The way that girl is watching him, with a sense of captivation and even admiration in her eyes. I'm in love.

5:29 What the hell was that!?

Thank you for every time I had to listen to this to deal with some life issue. Thank you.

wtf was that at 5:29 ?

ohmygod !! Seriously! Hannah and Shane ~ you 'nailed' it !!

I absolutely HATE the applause while the violinist is still playing.

Very well put. Someone whose job description consists of smiling, walking and wearing (or not wearing) clothes is in no position to criticise someone with a talent. I'd never heard of this guy. Will rectify that now. Awesome song / poem / whatever the hell it was.

Each gun shot came from our fingertips

Mommy, Mommy PLEASE! Take me back to days like these...