Essay on slam poetry

WordsThey are our strength our weaknesses. Words are considered to be

a mysterious contrivance of communication in our everyday life. Powers of wellchosen words have the power to inform, influence, educate and entertain others.
Their powers are expressed effectively and emotionally in stories, poems,
essays.Therefore one of the most vital and energetic movements in poetry
during the 90s, slam has revitalized interest in poetry in performance. This type
of poetry began as part of an oral tradition, at the Get Me High Lounge in
Chicago in November 1984. This interest was reborn through the rise of poetry
slams across America. A slam itself is simply a poetry competition in which poets
perform original work alone or in teams before an audience, which serves as
judge. Every poet has to have a valid opinion about art and he doesn`t need a
degree or certificate to prove it is important for the poets to be honest and not
be influenced by the audience or the judges. For this reason the words can
inspire you or wound you. What you say will affect you either in a positive or
negative way. In this essay I will go through some of the most successful slam
poets in the English speaking world.
First of all I should mention Taylor Mali as the most well-known slam poet.
He embraces unconventionality, his works are meant to be read, and each of his
poems has deeper meaning waiting to be discovered. Articulate, accessible,
passionate, and downright funny, Mali was a member of the royal Shakespeare
Company and he puts those kinds of skills in all his performances.
"What teachers make" has been viewed over 4 million times, and therefore it is
his most valuable poem. Mali has a specific type of connection with the
audience; throughout humor he guides them to new way of looking things.
Particularly this poem was born out of an actual dinner conversation he had. This
poem is about the teachers, the people who give us the most precious, valuable
gift that can ever be given, which is knowledge's a matter of fact teachers these
days are mocked because do their job, specifically for their earnings, their
income. In fact everybody seems to ask them what they make, not knowing that
the word make hides a deeper meaning. So if anybody asks you this question
you can simply use the arguments that Taylor states in his speech. As I wrote
before, he was inspired by the conversation he had with one layer who was very
confident. The layer quoted " Those who can do and those who can`t teach", by
this statement Taylor got angry but he didn't wanted to be impolite and say some
inappropriate words so he taught him a lesson that he would remember his
entire life. For example he says that he makes the children work hard, he makes
them feel proud when they get C-.Taylor is the type of teacher that calls the
parents and tells them to appreciate their children, he trains them to question,
criticize and most important to spell correctly. The poem ends with a powerful
message which is to do what you like, if one has knowledge and likes his work he
should not be interrupted by anyone.
In addition to the bad grammar and the terrible spelling mistakes that students
make he wrote the poem "The the Impotence of Proofreading" which is the first
thing that pops into my mind when someone makes a mistake. His poem is a

piece of expression which contains a certain interpretation of feelings and ideas

which are presented by a particular diction. Throughout this poem he constantly
messes with the spelling and grammar using humor, whoever listens it will find
himself laughing out loud. Taylor is really confident and he knows the power of
words, and when something is said with confidence, it will most likely be
perceived by the audience. For instance, the official version of his poem is
noticeably different ever time he performs. It is really evident that he has the
power to switch just few words in a sentence so that the whole meaning of it
changes.
Second of all Taylor was a teacher long before he became a poet, so he knows
the flaws of the educational system very well. One of his poems "An Apple a Day
Is Not Enough" is emphasizing the importance of health education and the
impotence of health kids. As he says "Healthy kids do better in school". He tries
to call out all the people to help him to make this change. Accordingly to the
recent surveys 1 in 5 children these days is considered as obese. Teachers are
responsible for the health of the children therefore they should put a lot of effort
in trying to teach them what to eat and how to behave. They should make this
problem equally important as teaching mathematics for example. Throughout his
poems Taylor conveys his knowledge about America`s youth, and speaks of real
life problems.
Third of all I shall not forget to mention Sarah Key the youngest poet in spoken
word poetry; she began to perform since she was fourteen. She is a member of
the TED conference and her most memorable for her talk in 2011. Also she has
published books which are highly ranked. VOICE is the name of the organization
that she takes part of; in fact this organization uses spoken word poetry to
encourage people to engage in self expression in schools and communities
around the world. Her poem "Hands" is about the importance of hands; the
gestures of the connections they provide for us. She explains how hand
represent everything in our everyday life's; they enable us to write, work ,drive,
play some instrumentIn fact this poem represents people in general, from all
around the world, and everyone should read it and understand it. Hands can
make war or peace in the same way as words can do, she declares that hands
are created for love. Throughout her performance she uses her hands which
make this poem really original. The theme of love is spread throughout the poem
she says that the hands are like mirrors of one`s life they show everything.
However what makes this poem special is was the way that Sarah presents it.
She made hands seem much more important that appeal. Due to this she used
metaphors, and similes. Thus the poem was not based on some opinion but on
facts that are so convincing, and at the end make you see them to understand
who you really are.
Altogether, the teachers are heroes of the educational system; they should
be praised and respected for that. Taylor as a former teacher is one of many
people whose works are meant to inspire. A good teacher can inspire children to
work hard and achieve their goals and a bad teacher can discourage children
make them lazy and not fully educated. That is why teachers assist in many
aspect of children lives, they teach them how to get by in life, how to behave,

eat, how to inspire others. The educational system might not be perfect and it
cannot be but the teachers are the ones that can MAKE a difference, they MAKE
sacrifice of themselves to MAKE small children grow into academic people, they
MAKE the future of the society, they MAKE the children the best they can be,
they can contribute to MAKE a better world. The truth is teachers do not work for
salary; they do this job simply because they want to make difference. The
connections between teachers and students go well beyond the paycheck. After
all you don`t have to be a teacher to make a difference, you can take Sarah Key
for example. Her words are so powerful, full of facts, stories that make you think
about life. So slam poetry has the power to influence on people, to make them
think in a different way.