March 20, 2012 - 0520

I watched the documentary "Louder Than A Bomb", about the poetry slam contest that takes place in Chicago, and I wrote this after seeing Adam Gottlieb give a jaw-dropping performance. If you haven't seen this movie, and consider yourself any kind of poet, you are doing yourself a disservice. See it now. Twice. It is inspiring.

Who Do I Think I Am?

Can I be as good as this man

This child who lives in the City

This half-my-age literary genius

Who brought me to tears with his words?

I see the open mike calls

The contests and competitions

I see the friendly messages for poems

And I think I can do it

Then I hear this man

This child who lives in the City

This half-my-age literary genius

Who brought me to tears with his words

I say to myself "I can do this"

"I can go to this open call"

"I can write something that they will like"

I think I can...

And then I hear this man

This child who lives in the City

This half-my-age literary genius

Who brought me to tears with his words

I put my words on "paper"

The virtual page where I collect my thoughts

With the thought that I can go to the mike

And share with the polite applause

But then I think of the man

The child who lives in the City

The half-my-age literary genius

Who brought me to to tears with his words

And I close the "book" and walk away