Slam+Poetry

media type="youtube" key="pKyIw9fs8T4?fs=1" height="385" width="480"

In case you hadn't noticed, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about? Or believe strongly in what you're saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? Declarative sentences - so-called because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true as opposed to other things which were, like, not - have been infected by a totally hip and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know? Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; this is just like the word on the street, you know? It's like what I've heard? I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? What has happened to our conviction? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest? Or do we have, like, nothing to say? Has society become so, like, totally. . . I mean absolutely. . . You know? That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like. . . whatever! And so actually our disarticulation. . . ness is just a clever sort of. . . thing to disguise the fact that we've become the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since. . . you know, a long, long time ago! I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, I challenge you: To speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too.

With his poem ’Totally like Whatever’, Taylor Mali points out the loss of articulation and authoritative speaking in modern society. I found this poem interesting because I’ve noticed that I sometimes use unnecessary infliction at the end of my sentences. I’ve also noticed many people speaking with a tone of uncertainty, as Taylor Mali asks in his poem, 'What has happened to our conviction?’. It seems almost as if people are looking for confirmation or approval in their statements, 'Or do we have, like, nothing to say?’. Perhaps people are afraid to be declarative. Taylor Mali compares the fear of declaration to the receding rainforest; 'Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?/Have they been, like, chopped down/with the rest of the rain forest?’. If one doesn’t sound like they know what they’re talking about, no-one is going to take them seriously. As Taylor Mali said; 'it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY./You have to speak with it, too.'

USE OF POETIC DEVISES? 8/10