Bare Knuckle Warrior Poetic Analysis

Speaker Cameron Conaway is a man of many struggles; his father walked out on his family when he was young, he had to grow up fast, and he has seen and experienced plenty of sorrow throughout his life so far. Throughout his lecture, “Bare Knuckle Warrior Poetics: On Fighting, Writing and the Worlds Between,” Conaway mentions over and over again how important it is to be “present” in life, which I believe to be his main argument. He talks about how he spent time with Monks and practiced being present in where he was and realized that presence is a true gift.
Additionally, Conaway recalls a quote a good friend once told him which went something similar to this: “you weren’t just here, you were present,” which seemed to resonate with him deeply. There is a true difference in living in society and actually being present and Conaway claims that if people were to be more aware of where they were and practice it, that it would make a change in their lives. He further supports and explains his argument by …show more content…
He speaks of when he went around listening and writing about the stories of young boys within the sex trades, which was heartbreaking to hear. Conaway mentioned how these stories were overlooked and that he couldn’t stand for that, so he wanted to listen and let their stories be told. On the other hand, my virtue was to “read and understand” which I think ties in well with this lecture. Personally, I do not think I would have gone to this event, if not for this class; something about the title of the lecture seemed off putting and boring. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Conaway really did intrigue me, and it makes me wish his lecture had a better summary or that I could be more open-minded and outgoing to attend events as such. To be honest, I thought he was going to be talking about poetry and boxing, but he got into some deep topics and I cannot