Slam Poetry
I'm still gushing over Slammed series and obviously, I can't get over how lovely the read is. It was where I am introduced about slam poetry which I never heard before. I would love to witness this one day or present one if I can, if slam nights really happen in real life before I die. So allow me to show you some pieces I loved when I was reading Slammed series:
The Lake
I used to love the ocean.
Everything about her.
Her coral reefs, her whitecaps,
her roaring waves, the
rocks they lap, her pirate leg-
ends and mermaid tails,
Treasures lost and treasures
held . . .
And ALL
Of her fish
In the sea.
Yes, I used to love the ocean,
Everything about her.
The way she would sing me to
sleep as I lay in my bed
then wake me with a force
That I soon came to dread.
Her fables, her lies, her misleading eyes,
I'd drain her dry
If I cared enough to,
I used to love the ocean,
Everything about her.
Her coral reefs, her whitecaps,
her roaring waves, the
rocks they lap, her pirate leg-
ends and mermaid tails,
Treasures lost and treasures
held.
And ALL
Of her fish
In the sea.
Well, if you've ever tried navi-
gating your sailboat
through her stormy seas, you
would realize that
her whitecaps are your enemies.
If you've ever tried
swimming ashore when your leg
gets a cramp and
you just had a huge meal of In-
n-Out burgers that's
weighing you down, and her
roaring waves are
knocking the wind out of you,
filling your lungs with
water as you flail your arms,
trying to get someone's
attention, but your friends
just
wave
back at you?
And if you've ever grown up
with dreams in your head
about life, and how one of
these days you would pirate
your own ship and have your
own crew and that all of
the mermaids
would love
only
you?
Well, you would realize . . .
Like I eventually realized . . .
That all the good things about
her?
All the beautiful?
It's not real.
It's fake.
So you keep your ocean,
I'll take the Lake.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Schooled
I got schooled this year.
By everyone.
By my little brother . . .
by The Avett Brothers . . .
by my mother, my best friend,
my teacher, my father,
and
by
a
boy.
I got schooled this year.
By a cancer patient.
She taught me so much. She's
still teaching me so much.
She taught me to question.
To never regret.
She taught me to push my
boundaries,
Because that's what they're
there for.
She told me to find a balance
between head and heart
And then
she taught me how . . .
I got schooled this year
By a foster kid.
She taught me to respect the
hand I was dealt.
And to be grateful I was even
dealt a hand.
She taught me that family
Doesn't have to be blood.
Sometimes your family
are your friends.
I got schooled this year
By my teacher
He taught me
That the points are not the
point,
The point is poetry . . .
I got schooled this year
By my father.
He taught me that heroes aren't
always invincible
And that the magic
is within me.
I got schooled this year
by
a
boy.
A boy that I'm seriously, deeply,
madly, incredibly, and undeni-
ably in love with.
And he taught me the most im-
portant thing of all--
To put emphasis
On life.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Better than third
I met a girl.
A beautiful girl.
And I fell for her.
I fell hard.
Unfortunately, sometimes life
gets in the way.
Life definitely got in my way.
It got all up in my damn way,
Life blocked the door with a
stack of wooden two-by-fours
nailed together and attached to
a fifteen-inch concrete wall be-
hind a row of steel bars,
bolted to a titanium frame that
no matter how hard I shoved
against it---
It
wouldn't
budge.
Sometimes life doesn't budge.
It just gets all up in your damn
way.
It blocked my plans, my dreams,
my desires, my wishes,
my wants, my needs.
It blocked out that beautiful girl
That I fell so hard for.
Life tries to tell you what's best
for you.
What should be most important
to you.
What should come first
Or second
Or third.
I tried so hard to keep it all or-
ganized, alphabetized, stacked
in chronological order, every-
thing in its perfect space, its per-
fect place.
I thought that's what life want-
ed me to do.
This is what life needed for me
to do.
Right?
Keep it all in sequence?
Sometimes life gets in your
way.
It gets all up in your damn way.
But it doesn't get all up in your
damn way because it wants you
to just give up and let it take
control. Life doesn't get all up
in your damn way because it
just wants you to hand it all
over and be carried along.
Life wants you to fight it.
Learn how to make it your own.
It wants you to grab an axe and
hack through the wood.
It wants you to get a sledgeham-
mer and break through the con-
crete.
It wants you to grab a torch and
burn through the metal and
steel until you can reach
through and grab it.
Life wants you to grab all the
organized, the alphabetized, the
chronological, the sequenced. It
wants you to mix it all together,
stir it up,
blend it.
Life doesn't want you to let it
tell you that your little brother
should be the only thing that
comes first.
Life doesn't want you to let it
tell you that your career and
your education should be the
only thing that comes in second.
And life definitely doesn't want
me
To just let it tell me
that the girl I met---
The beautiful, strong, amazing,
resilient girl
That I fell so hard for---
Should only come in third.
Life knows.
Life is trying to tell me
That the girl I love?
The girl I fell
So hard for?
There's a room for her in first.
I'm putting her first.
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