Slam . . . duh duh duh

Class is over for the day. It was boring again, but I was sitting next to Chris who I'm becoming chums with. He automatically gets two life points for his first comment to me today. Joanna (the teacher for today focusing on ELL (English Language Learners)) was showing the agenda for the day and the third one down was Cummins Quadrants of learning. She mentioned this and he whispered to me, "He he, she said cummin." That takes balls for someone who is not good friends with someone else. So, he wins for the day.

Anyway, I said in my last awesome blog that I'd put in some poetry from a video we watched in our World Lit I class today. It was an episode of HBO's Def Poetry Jam hosted by Mos Def (who's awesome). There was this one guy, Black Ice, who was amazing, but I don't have his text written. John (mentor) brought in a book today of some of the Def Poetry and the one I will be putting below was the first guy who won the 1998 Slam poetry something or other on the video. It's good, but it's missing a cool chunk in the middle which I didn't notice until we watched it a second time today. So, here it is:

I wanna hear a poem
Written by Steve Colman

I wanna hear a poem
I wanna learn something I didn’t know
I wanna say ’YES’ at the end
Because I’m sick of saying ‘so?’

I wanna hear a poem about who you are
and what you think
and why you slam
not a poem about my poem
because I know who I am
I wanna hear a love poem a sad poem an I hate my
dad poem
a dream poem an I’m not what I seem poem
an I need poem an I also bleed poem
an I’m alone poem an I can’t find my home poem
I wanna hear a poem about revolution
about fists raised high
and hips twisting in a rumble
like a rumba
I wanna follow the footsteps of Che
and hear the truth about the day
the CIA killed Lumumba
And because every second matters
I wanna hear long poems and short poems
about time and its limits
because it took less than three minutes
to attack Abner Louima
to frame Assata Shakur
and destroy Hiroshima
to kill Eleanor Bumpers
and Anthony Baez
to gun down Malcolm with bullets they bought
from the Feds

I wanna hear a poem
where ideas kiss similes so deeply
metaphors get jealous
where the subject matters so much
that adjectives start holding pro-noun rallies
at city hall
because I want to hear a poem

that attacks the status quo
that attracts the claps of the cats
with the phattest flows
that makes the crowd
pass the hat
and pack my cap
with a stack of dough
I want to hear a poem that makes this audience
Yell HOOOOO!!!!!
Because I want to guess your favorite color
then craft rhyme schemes out of thin air
I wanna hear a poem about why the statute of
limitations
for rape
is only five years
I wanna hear a poem
I wanna feel a poem
I wanna taste a poem
Give me your spot on the mic
if you wanna waste a poem
I wanna hear a poem.


There's a lot of good parts of this song. The flow when he starts with the "status quo" line is good. I LOVE the part talking about kissing a simile so deeply metaphors get jealous and holding pro-noun rallies. I thought that was smart. This really pales in comparison to Black Ice, though. That guy went off. He spoke with so much feeling and used words that just blew me away. His flow was so much more complex and just incredibly intelligent. I really wish I had his lyrics.

I have to cut this short, actually. Dave is bitching at me to make dinner. Seriously.

Yup.