Spoken Word Updates!

So a few updates on how spoken word is going. I'm part of a group on campus called Teeth http://www.teethpoets.com/Members.html (I'll be up there soon!), which is quite exciting. Yale has many, many incredible spoken word poets and it's been a pleasure to watch them perform and learn from them. A couple of spoken word groups also worked together to bring in a very talented professional poet, Shihan, to campus today, and his performance was AMAZING. You can check out one of his poems at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LusRcLdvDgc. I figure I also owe you guys a poem, but I can't quite show you a new one I'm working on, because it's really not ready, but here's a significantly edited version of an earlier poem (well, a significant addition was added). It's called ingratiating for gratitude.

I’ve never been ravished by foreclosure before
And I in no way mean to make light of the plight
But I can’t help imagining the angle between my actions and foreclose runs 180 degrees
Parallel.
Because while my announcement is not white wood with a flap swinging in the breeze
Sharp point planted in the grass, so seemingly mundane
But Bank Name seared into the hanging plane
My signs are no less vivid nor clashing.
I too, am desperate to unload to any reasonable buyer
An artificially low outcome doesn’t seem too dour
I’m constantly putting myself up for auction
I just want to regain somethin’
My foreclosure though wasn’t caused by a contracting economy that’s appalling
A loss of work, or income that that was free-falling
My foreclosure was the result of adding another job
You see Currently
I’m selling out.
Which is funny cuz there’s not even money
But I assure you
I’m selling out
And I’m looking for an out
[…]
Split and sautéed in a sauce that’s pooled
But I still expect my auto ten percent gratuity
Cuz this, this must be a large enough party
And im hoping you like me even more
Cash in another ten percent at the door
But then here’s how the evening was usurped
See, you’re ticked off wish you were in Europe
Where the only things that are tips, are the extremity of an object
And I, I’m wishing I was working on a new project
Because speaking of objects, there’s more than that I’d like to see
See, I’m still just a waiter
But I’ve waited far too long for this obsession to abate
So I don’t mean to hate,
But I strongly dislike
I’d like for it to take a hike
This predilection where I’m constantly estimating if I’m liked
So no, I don’t have a resume or an alternate frame of view
But I assure you, I’m looking for something new.
Because I know if I can shed this current work.
My progressively mortgaged me can be regained
The judge ruling this foreclosure was just insane.

Prof. Earth

What up world. I know you have a ton of students, and I don't really have any specific questions at this moment, but I figured I'd take this time during your informal office hours to formally introduce myself. Hopefully, I'll get to know you a lot better over the next few years, and you can get to know me better too.

Short Spoken Word

(SEM Microscope. Image from: http://rsic.puchd.ac.in/images/image002.jpg).

It's about being short. But it's my longest one yet. What up! (It's longer not as much because I have more to say, but because I want to start making my spoken words a little longer). I'll try to have a video of it being performed on facebook soon, and I'll also soon hopefully make a post about some of my thoughts and experiences since I started college (briefly: I am trying out for two spoken word groups, one tomorrow and one saturday!), but for now just this spoken word.

Five Foot Five

Part 1: Me
To the metric system
Or I suppose it’s just the American
Us and our unilateral action
But to whatever measurements system we use
I stand 5 foot five inches
And that’s short.
Naturally you might be asking
Do I have a Napolen Complex?
So I respond, no.
No, I don’t have a Napolen Complex.
(Although if I did, I probably wouldn’t tell you.
But no I don’t.
In fact my whole life I have and will work tirelessly trying to fail everything to prove I don’t have a Napolen complex.
Just kidding.
So here’s the truth
I don’t have a Napolen complex)
In fact I have a nothingness complex
Not no complex, but nothingness
Cuz you see to myself sometimes I seem microscopic, nanoscopic,
I sell myself short
In exchange for an expanse
Of excuses and pity
But here’s the thing
The rates on excuses and self-pity
Just crashed, and their value is vacuity
As evaluated by the international board on being real.
The new value of the old set equates
To Empty emotional space
perhaps even debt
What I’m trying to say
Is it’s not something I want.
It’s not something I value,
or that has value.
And I know I’m about to make things a lil distended
On The Microeconomics lecture I just attended
But the opportunity cost for standing up full 5’5’’
Is Nill.
Do ya feel?
Other than the activation energy required
To break the self-conscious chains acquired
There is no cost of self-confidence
Only the exothermic enjoyment
Like I was oxygen, and here’s my breath of fresh air.
There is a reason for you to talk to me
like there is a reason for me to talk to you.
To learn, to laugh, to ‘shoot the shit.’
I am five foot five. I am right here.
And This poem, is my homogenous catalyst
This poem, is meant to fill the cyst
Of my fragile willingness to engage.
So in the adapted words of Bon Qui Qui
security..it’s time for this cyst to go.


Part 2: Others
Because here’s the worst part
Of my diffidence
Its like bad vector transformation
It’s one thing to inflict myself
But then I map my own insecurities on you
So 1. You now also need an SEM microscope
Or at least huge ass binoculuars to cope
And have the ability to perceive me
And 2.
I’m embarrassed to say this truly
But your value is adjusted retributively
To the physical appearance of you I see
But I’m tired of making you the judge of me
More so, me the defensive, vapid judge of you.
And it’s time to end this corrupting view.
The cessation only requires proper functioning
Of that inner strength of confidence.




So therefore. Part 3: Conclusion.
I am five’ foot five, readily in sight.
Hello, my name is David, it’s a pleasure to meet you all here tonight

~DKSays