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Spoken Word Poetry

Spoken Word is poetry intended for onstage performance, rather than being written on a page. While often associated with hip-hop culture, it also has strong ties to storytelling, modern poetry, post-modern performance and music. Spoken word is a rhythmic poetry. It is performed enthusiastically rather than just read plainly. Shane Koyczan is very powerful poet because he uses real life situations in his poetry. In the poem "People are getting better" he shows the rampant evil in the world we live, although "they say people are getting better." he cites that "I know what I'm missing / so I aint gonna try it / because freedom aint freedom / if you gotta buy it." The mood shown in this poem is anxious and relieved because Shane is letting all his feelings out about the world. The theme he is trying to express is that people are still on the streets everyday doing drugs and getting into bad habits but there is hope that people will get better.

Another excellent poet that is very enthusiastic would be Beau Sia because he gets so much into his poems and really expresses his mood throughout poetry. "Give Me A Chance" is a good example of how much Beau Sia gets into his poems because in this poem he gives you an idea about how successful he wants to be in life and how badly he wants it. When he exclaims, "Please consider me/ and all those things and more" he shows how badly he wants that one thing. This poem talks about life in general from growing up and going to college to starting your own career. Beau Sia is ready to take a big step in life and he "cannot stress how ready [he is]" because he is really eager. The theme of this poem is that if you really want something you have to want it really badly and that's how you will make a change to this world. 

One more poet I really enjoy listening to is Taylor Mali, he is an American slam poet, humorist, teacher, and voiceover artist. In the poem “what teachers make” Taylor Mali lets loose on his feelings about being a teacher. He talks about the teachers and student’s perspectives because some students cannot tolerate school and some teachers cannot tolerate certain students. A mood that would represent this poem would be passionate because Taylor really likes doing what he does and says “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”  Taylor also talks about how important of a job it is just because teachers don’t make as much as they deserve. The theme of this poem would be that even though teachers don’t make that much in terms of finance they “make a goddamn difference.”