SHANE Koyczan has become an industry.
The West Coast writer who rose to fame when his patriotic ode to Canada We Are More was featured in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics has become something unique: the poet as entrepreneur.
He has newsletters, YouTube videos, and a band. T-shirts inspired by his poetry retail for $25 on his website. Koyczan blended his words with the music of the folk group the Short Story Long for the album Remembrance Year, which is available for digital download for $9.99, also on his website. Poetry-lovers can purchase an audio recording of Koyczan reciting his poem of the month for 99 cents.
"This isn't the kind of job with like, job security or anything like that. If you're going to do it you really have to bite the bullet and say 'I'm going to do this.' I remember quitting my job and saying, 'I'm going to give this a year and see where it takes me.' It just kept snowballing," Koyczan says. "I make a good living doing what I do."
During a phone interview Koyczan's voice sounds a little deeper and his cadence slightly more abrupt than during some of his stage performances.
Earlier this year Koyczan appeared shy and shaken as he strode to the microphone to recite his poem "To This Day" at TED, an idea conference.
"When I was a kid I used to think pork chops and karate chops were the same thing," Koyczan began.
That childhood misapprehension, and a few accidental bruises, led to an investigation into abuse, a hated nickname, and what is now his best-known poem.
The work examines the lasting effects of bullying and name-calling with the passage: "We got called them all, so we grew up believing no one would ever fall in love with us. That we'd be lonely forever. That we'd never meet someone to make us feel like the sun was something they built for us in their tool shed."
A version of the poem replete with animation has been viewed more than eight million times on YouTube.
The TED conference remains a high watermark for
Koyczan.
"TED was not a career highlight. TED was a life highlight. I don't recall ever having felt so held by an audience. Thank you," Koyczan tweeted following the event.
Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Koyczan moved to Penticton, B.C. at 14.
Practiced in the habit of journaling, Koyczan became more serious about writing as he neared the end of high school.
"For me poetry, was . . . the fastest way to express what I was feeling, what I was going through," he says.
Koyczan first exposed those expressions to the light of an audience sometime around 1999 at the Vancouver Press Club, he says.
"I didn't know you had to have two poems in case you make it to the second round and so I had to write my second poem on the spot," he says.
Asked if he remembers what the poem was about, Koyczan responds: "I have no idea."
There is a story suggesting Koyczan entered the poetry slam in the hopes of winning a cash prize to make up for a shortfall in his rent, but he couldn't confirm that.
"That sounds probably true," he says.
Koyczan likens participating in poetry slams to a search for his place.
Asked why he decided to step on stage, Koyczan responds with three words: "Looking for others."
He seems to have found a like-minded tribe, many of whom relate to his life and his words.
"Every day I get letters from people saying this is helping me through my day or this spoke to me on a personal level," he says. "I guess initially I was amazed that somebody would see something within my work that they could really relate to but the more it's happened the more people have come forward, I've really realized that we're all kind of going through the same thing at the same time."
For the last eight years, Koyczan has dedicated himself almost exclusively to the written word.
"It was George Burns who said 'I'd rather be a failure at something I love than a success at something I hate.' And so for me it's always: why am I working shitty security jobs?
I mean, why not take that chance and follow something you're actually interested in," he says.
Asked who his poetry is written for, Koyczan's replies: "Me, primarily. A lot of it's therapy."
As therapy, it seems to be succeeding, says Koyczan.
"It's done well for me. I've been off antidepressants for a while now. It's just a way to sort of release," he says.
One of the criticisms Koyczan has received is that his work is overly optimistic, a critique he bears proudly.
"I think optimism, pessimism, skepticism, they're choices. For me, I find that I've gone further in life with a positive attitude. The reason I'm as far along as I am is because I've said 'yes' more often than I've said 'no.'"
