Theme Of Instructions To A Bad Day

My initial impression of the poem upon listening to it is that it conveys a strong motivational theme. The poem's title, "Instructions to a Bad Day," effectively indicates that the poem will explore how to overcome a bad day and thus that the poem will be motivational and uplifting, which I found complemented the poem's theme. The poet, Shane Koyczan’s overall message behind the poem is that while there may be bad days, there is never a day we will not overcome, and there is never a light that we cannot reach; if we realize this and accept the help of the people who care about us instead of carrying our pain and burden with us, then we can move past these bad days. The poem's message is made abundantly clear throughout, courtesy of the poet's use of numerous

"Realize every dark cloud is a smoke screen meant to blind us from the truth, and the truth is whether we see them or not - the sun and moon are still there, and always there is light," is a metaphor comparing the sky’s clearing of dark clouds to reveal the sun and moon to having a bad day but "scraping the grey sky clean." Personification is evident in "love" and "hate," describing them as beasts able to grow in the phrase "Love and hate are beasts, and the one that grows is the one you feed." The statement is saying that if you give into either love or hate, you'll be stuck with that emotion as it lingers over you like a "beast," and that it's up to you to determine which you wish to accept. The imagery in some statements throughout the poem also offers a very fresh perspective on life; for example, in the line "Be the weed growing through the cracks in the cement, beautiful--because it doesn’t know it’s not supposed to grow here," I visualize a weed pushing its way up through the cement and never relenting; the meaning behind this is to be persistent and determined to overcome challenges in