In Your Voice

I [emphatically] hate it [short pause] when mosquitos bite my ankles [fervently] through my socks.

[quickly] I hate that Starbucks doesn’t sell pumpkin spice lattes [pause] year-round. I hate [long pause] [wistfully] how the hills are brown this time of year.

The above lines may not look like a traditional poem, [short pause] but take a minute and read them out loud (if someone else is there, read aloud for that person). Did you? Great! You just performed a spoken word poem I wrote based on a simple yet therapeutic prompt: “Write a list of things you hate.”

So, what is spoken word poetry? Sarah Kay–cofounder of the Poetry Foundation–said, “The powerful and important thing about spoken word is, it doesn’t matter what the words look like on paper. It’s about what it sounds like when you say it out loud.” The 1999 film 10 Things I Hate About You includes a profound example of spoken word poetry. [Eye contact with the audience] If you haven’t seen it, you really should. The poem performed by the film’s protagonist, Kat, requires her inflection, tone, eye contact, and body language just to tell her love interest, Patrick, [in a soft, impassioned voice] how [short pause] he [short pause] had [short pause] hurt [short pause] her [long pause]. And how she loved him, [pause] despite the hurt of betrayal. Spoken word isn’t meant to live on the page [long pause] but in the voice.

[Standing taller, tone shift] Why should you write and perform spoken word. You have feelings: [speeding up] Hurt. [pause] Joy. [pause] Hope. [pause] Trust. [short pause] Love. [short pause] Betrayal. [short pause] Passion. Loneliness. Longing. [long pause, breath]

You [pause] have the power to [quickly] string them together into a beautiful poetic story, [slower] something entirely new, [short pause] entirely you. Like Kat, [pause] you have the power to give your feelings [emphatically] a voice, if only for a moment. Many feelings are not profound. Equally, your poems do not need to be profound. They [emphatically] only need be the authentic expression of self your heart covets.

[tone shift] How do you write spoken word? Like me, you could begin with a list of things you hate. Sarah Kay often has her students write a different list: ten things they [emphatically] know to be true. Things like

1. [pause] There is a monster in my closet.
2. [pause] Mint green is the best color.
3. My [long pause] [quickly] sister had a goldfish named Dennis.

Write your list. Right now! Write now. Come back after you’ve written it down. [long pause] Have you written it down yet? [long pause] Okay! You just wrote a poem! [Slowly, emphatically] But that poem is currently a bony, lifeless husk, lacking the flesh and blood of body and voice. [long pause] So, read it. [long pause] Out loud. [long pause] To another person. [pause] It’s terrifying. [short pause] But you can do this!

[Quickly, desperately] In that moment, you will become a spoken word poet. You will add a new voice to this orchestra of poets: an orchestra desperate for another instrument to continue its symphony. Please. [Long pause] [Slowly] Go out and speak. Let spoken word live [long pause] in your voice.

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When Matthias is not reveling in the joys of composition, you can find him at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, slinging shots of espresso like it's the wild, wild west. His writing style is rich in metaphor and complex sentences (he loves a good parenthetical phrase). Grammar is no tyrant, but a tool and a toy. Happy writing!