Hoagie's, Poetry Slam Video, pretty cool

[Bang!Zoom!]

 

Well, Thank You-by Taylor Phillips

 

When I found out there was going to be a slam,

I went straight to my dorm room, pen in hand

Ready to compose the next grand

Word symphony

To give a worldwide audience a personal epiphany

To write a poem for everyone,

 

I had censored before I’d even begun.

In a world where only 25% of adolescents read outside of class

How many are going to listen to a 16 year old slam

And know enough to give a ****.

I wanna write a poem

that only the worthy can understand

 

I wanna write a poem for smart people.

For true knowledge comes from the heart people,

For the search for that truth is an art people

For finish what you start people.

 

I wanna write a poem for gifted kids

Teens with minds like Pringles lids,

Once you pop, the fun don’t stop,

I wanna speak for the cream of the crop

 

 

Geniuses of the 21st Century, this is for you

 

Because you know “Live long and prosper†was first said on Vulcan

And when you solve a rubix cube too slowly,

You don’t stop sulkin until you win yet another chess match

In 17 moves flat

Or dip a tennis ball in a 3 liter vat of

Liquid nitrogen

Which we all know,

Is atomic #7.

 

I wanna write a poem for the scholastically driven

Who use their cerebellums to better the world we live in

And who don’t have to look up cerebellum to know

That they’re seeing this all thanks to their occipital lobe.

 

I wanna be the poet for the know-it-alls

Making metaphors from the trajectory of ping pong balls

Who knows that density is M over V

And the decimal of one third is point repeating three

 

I wanna write a poem for the literarily inclined

Who turn to Frost and Dickinson to find

The same drama as Desperate Housewives

Who make Styrofoam and saxophones pertain somehow to their lives

For those who say scintillati ng instead of doubleplusgood

And irked instead of irritated

Enthralled instead of fascinated

Proclaimed in lieu of simply “statedâ€

Deplorable instead of hated

Opaque instead of shaded

The brilliant and jaded

And seldom celebrated for the selves that they’ve created

And the many,

No,

The PLETHORA,

Of lives that they will change.

 

I wanna write a poem for kids with good grammar.

Who know that if someone asks how you’re doing

How Y-O-U apostrophe to the R-E doing.

You say WELL, thank you

And can differentiate between whom and who

And lie and lay

And which and that

Who never ask the question “where are you AT?â€

Because at’s a preposition, we don’t end sentences like that

 

I wanna write a poem for the kids at MSA

Who when I say BOOMBA

Respond with HEY!

We’re going to rule the freaking world someday

It’s FUN to be brilliant

But schools make it a chore

And I don’t quite know

Who’s being left behind anymore

So here is a poem of appreciation

To the future doctors and teachers and shrinks of our nation

And actors and authors

And computer technicians

And judges and journalists

And pediatricians

Moms dads and professional musicians

 

Reading is sexy and don’t you forget it

Mediocrity consumes, but not us, we won't let it.

We’re nerds because we strive

Moving this world forward with our inner drive

 

So I wrote this poem, out of my own fierce pride

For the youth, the world’s future, personified

because it’s scary, but it’s true

The future’s us, you guys

 

-Written for the 2009 Academy