Slam+Poetry

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In case you hadn’t realised, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you’re talking about? Or believe strongly in what you’re, like, saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical you know’s and you know what I’m sayings have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions?

Declarative sentences – so-called because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true, ok as opposed to other things that are, like, totally, you know, not - they’ve been infected by a this tragically cool and totally hip interrogative tone? As if Im saying, don’t think I’m a nerd just because I’ve, like, noticed this; ok I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, I’m just, like, inviting you to join me on the band wagon of my own uncertainty? <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What has happened to our conviction? <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Have they been, like, chopped down <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">with the rest of the rain forest? you know? <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Or do we have, like, nothing to say? <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Has society just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of ‘neegh’. . . <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That we’ve just gotten to the point where we’re the most aggressively inarticulate generation <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">to come along since. . . <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">you know, a long time ago!

<span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So I implore you, I entreat you and I challenge you <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To speak with conviction. <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">the determination with which you believe it. <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You’ve got to speak with it, too.

In this poem, Taylor Mali has spoken out to tell others how our language has deteriorated significantly. He says, "Our society has just become so filled with these conflicting feelilngs... that we've just gotten to the point where we're the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along." He has cleverly mimicked the language of teenagers and have added invisible question marks and parenthetical you know's, likes and you know what I'm sayings to emphasize the uselessness of these low quality language. For example, he says, "Declarative sentences- so called because they used to, like, declare things to be true, ok , as opposed to other things that are, like, totally, you know, not-? " He makes this type of language seem like total rubbish by over using the useless words. He succeeds in telling the listeners that we should speak with conviction and determination without the useless rubbish words.
 * Overall Meaning of the Poem (Theme)**

He has constantly used metaphors, to make his statements more clear. For example, he says, "Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest?"(Here, he is implying that our language has decreased in quality and the structure of our language has been chopped like trees in to nothing but rubbish.) He even uses personification:"<span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker ..." He has also used irony cleverly in his poem. His whole poem could be seen as irony for he is trying to discourage the listeners from using this type of language and using it himself at the same time.
 * Poetic Devices **

I have chosen this poem not because it was the most powerful but because it was the most influential to me. It was very hard to choose between numerous poems of Taylor Mali but the fact that I could easily relate to this poem stood out from the rest. That is why I chose this poem. I have had numerous experiences related to this type of language and I also have a friend who can not stop saying "like" and stop adding invisible question marks in the end of her sentences. I did not really care about this type of language; however, after listening to this poem, I now have realized how much our language has deteriorated and has turned in to rubbish. This poem is also very humorous, which I like. This poem has succeeded in influencing me in a variety of ways and I have learned to speak with conviction and determination. <span style="background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"..it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You’ve got to speak with it, too." -Taylor Mali
 * Personal Thoughts **