On Spoken Word

Listening to Alvin Lau's Full Moon and What Tiger Said, I sat mesmerized; not by the words, not by the message, but by his passion that fed off the screams and yelps from somewhere across the room that were in turn inspired by his passion. I read the comments underneath the video. Someone, presumably alone, cried watching a youtube video.

And then, as i rewatched Full Moon, i imagined how funny it would be if he was speaking in front of a bunch of highschoolers who can't wait till he would shut the hell up but who are nonetheless forced to quietly listen to him.

When i placed him there, he sounded so much quieter. More mouse than performer. "The silence...was deafening." There is a fire in every poet, in every soul that lives and is alive, that makes him aware of the overwhelming silence and makes him hate it. Eliot wasn't joking around when he said the world would end with a whimper. Mankind is drowning. That bitter silence is the symbol of futility, of hopelessness, and desperation. Have you ever shouted at the top of the lungs? I have. Did you notice how long the sound lasted? Few seconds? Maybe there was an echo. But not long. And i screamed the hell out of myself, and all i can do was a few seconds.  Why fight when the end is already clear?

Maybe as a final f*ck you! to fate. Maybe to make us feel secure; that we will make a difference and therefore our lives have been meaningful - and to hide the fact that we will never live enough to see the fullness of our lives. For those who have no faith in the afterlife, there is nothing. Why make the world you're leaving a better place when you're leaving? We are but flowers, alive today, gone tomorrow. Shadows. Breathes of air. Fading music.

Most likely, Alvin Lau will not even make a dent on the world's path. Even in the world of spoken word, he probably will only make a splash, nothing lasting in comparison to others who i believe are paving the way with real spoken poetry. I wonder why that person cried. I know everyone has personal preference and here is mine. The bad spoken poetry is so easy to understand it lays everything out. The only thing appealing about it is the intensity.The raw emotion. To understand his poem, there requires very little thinking. A lot of people like this. A lot of people like the hip-hop rap sound of spoken word.

I thought of all the people i know that have cried from reading a poem. I got a grand total of 2. Some real poetry, something that takes time to figure out, that grows in importance, that actually shows us something, points to something that wasn't there before or i didn't realize before. Poetry that paints a picture. That is new exciting fun. Yes, i know same-sex marriage is not allowed in the USA, even if it is between two people who love each other. Yes, celebrities and athletes are not the best role models. Political statements over the obvious are things that any 18 year old can do. Playing with words - babies do that. I do that. Spoken word is like poetry in that it connects people - the author and his audience, the speaker and his. But the one failing of spoken word is that it fails to challenge minds, to renew them.

Maybe the spoken word "poets" do that on purpose. Cut out all the good stuff that leads to the good stuff because they don't have enough time. They literally need instant reactions (who would want an audience sitting there pondering every line for 30 minutes... boring as hell). Or maybe because they aren't poets. Just great talkers with a little hip hop. If you want to call that poetry, fine. But you just made the term the equivalent of an undergraduate degree (which is starting to mean less and less and less...)
buddy wakefield said it best, that anis was doing it with truth not gimmick. truth not gimmick!

But what does this matter? "And, this, too, shall pass." Here today, gone tomorrow. it's easy to see we are not self sustainable.