Poetry Slam Poems

Our Favorite New Toy? (Group Poem)

Remember when NSYNC was cool, (Hannah)

And girls ruled while boys drooled?

Remember Sesame Street’s Oscar the Grouch, (Jess)

And Loonette the Clown in the Big Comfy Couch?

Remember Mr. Rogers and his trains, (Kevin)

And our friends Arthur, D.W., Buster, and Brain

Whom we never thought we would leave? (Sam)

Well, Bye, Bye, Bye, because now,

Instead of Goodnight Moon,

it’s Goodnight iPad, Twitter, and Facebook ‘til June.

Goodbye Peter Pan. Hello Big Brother.

No more nightlights or monsters under the bed

Now it’s six hours of sleep instead.

No more playing in snow and sipping cocoa

We’re always in a hurry to go, go, go

We always wanted to grow up so fast

And never even bothered to look back.

But time and life don’t stand still.

People will always invent the next big thing

That will replace the iPhone, Twitter, and more

We don’t know what the future will bring,

But one thing we know for sure:

Our favorite new toy will become an ancient artifact (All)

Now What Do I Do? (Misc. Poem - S. Bell & H. Lombardo)

Mom:  ARE YOU UP YET?

IT'S TEN OF SEVEN!

Child:  YEAH!

Mom:  (aside)

You roll out of bed and grab your lunch,

Toast, juice box, and water

That I make for you every day.

Child:  BYE

Mom:  HAVE A GOOD DAY!

TEXT ME IF YOU NEED ANYTHING!

Child:  I WILL

Mom:  (aside)

Now you're at school,

And I patiently wait

until the end of your busy day.

It's 4-o'clock, you're running a bit late...

(texting)

WHAT'S YOUR PLAN?

THOUGHT YOU'D BE HOME BY NOW.

Child: (texting)

I'M LEAVING NOW.

Mom:  (aside)

You assure me you got caught up

Helping some kid or working out

After workouts ended.

I hear your car, now the door.

HOW WAS SCHOOL AND SOFTBALL?

Child:  NOTHING NEW, JUST ANOTHER NORMAL DAY.

Mom:  (aside)

I already knew that, but I ask everyday anyway.

Now you're doing homework;

You always have too much of that stuff.

DINNER'S READY WHEN YOU WANT IT!

Child:  I’LL BE DOWN IN A MINUTE!

Mom:   (aside)

You come racing down;

You're always so hungry.

Next thing I know it's 12-o'clock,

And you're still doing homework.

ARE YOU ALMOST DONE?

Child:  YEAH, I'LL BE DONE SOON.

Mom:  (aside)

You tell me you're almost done,

But we both know you're just saying that so I'll go to bed.

It doesn't work.

It's 1-o'clock, now you're done.

Child: GOODNIGHT!

Mom:  BRUSH YOUR TEETH AND GO TO BED.

SEE YOU IN THE MORNING.

(aside)

But this morning, you weren't here.

You're off going through your busy days without me.

Now what do I do?

Green-Eyed Monster (Individual Poem - K. Chan)

Oh Green-Eyed Monster, why do you exist in this world?

You’ve destroyed lovers, families, cities, kingdoms, countries,

Yet you’re still allowed to survive?

An atrocity manifested within human societies with no hopes of reformation,

A pandemic that plagues the Earth with no cure,

A wicked demon unable to be chained back to hell,

A Green-Eyed Monster.

How can something so small cause so much heartache?

You are like trash rotting around my soul,

Fuming noxious gases that spread like wildfire,

Clouding the  judgement of my brain

Leaving an aftertaste of gloom and despair;

You are like toxic waste, eroding through the layers of my heart,

Poisoning my body with your lustful chemicals,

Destroying everything you touch;

You are like a virus, injecting your own DNA to change my own,

Changing me into a monster I am not,

Changing me into a beast I cannot tame,

Slowly traveling through my bloodstream,

Releasing your evil at every organ,

Bursting through the pores of my skin until I explode!

Why!?

Oh why!?

Celery.

Why do you exist in our world if you only cause misery.

Hamlet #6: Interaction between the Queen and Hamlet

In Act III scene iv Hamlet interacts with Queen Gertrude, his mother. Right from the beginning of the interaction Hamlet takes a condescending tone toward his mother. Hamlet mocks his mother by using practically the same structure that she uses and most of the same words, but changing a few words to attack her and make fun of her. When the Queen says "Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended" (III. iv. 12), Hamlet immediately responds with "Mother, you have my father much offended" (III. iv. 13). Hamlet practically says the same thing his mother said but instead of the addressee being "Hamlet", Hamlet changes it to "Mother," and instead of saying "thou hast thy father," Hamlet says "you have my father." The latter sounds less intellectual, and it can be inferred that since Hamlet is a philosopher he chose to sound less intellectual to make fun of his mother. By using simplistic words that sound less intellectual, Hamlet makes the subtle statement that his mother is stupid. The next two lines follow a similar pattern; the Queen first says, "Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue," (III. iv. 14) and Hamlet responds with, "Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue" (III. iv. 15). Hamlet again follows the exact structure of his mother and the words he changes are changed to their opposites: "come" to "go," "answer" to "question," and "idle" to "wicked." By copying the structure and changing words to their opposites, he again insults his mother by taking her words and turning them on her, essentially saying that he can use her words better than she can. This condescending tone that he takes toward his mother in the beginning of their interaction sets up the dynamic of their entire interaction.

My Usual Approach Just Doesn't Apply

My usual approach just doesn't apply
There's no slope to you line
There's no X to your Y
And you're outside the domain of the inverse of sine

I've got a model to follow
That tells me how the universe acts
But there's nothing on sorrow
Or your mental collapse.

I see you just sitting all alone and upset,
I hear your silent screams for me to help
But for once I don't know what I can do, since
My usual approach just doesn't apply.

Let Me Fail

Stop telling me what do.
There's a reason these are my assignments;
I need to figure them out.
I need to do them.

You're only trying to help,
But I've told you for years:
It's unhelpful,
It's counterproductive.

When you try to make me do something, I refuse
Because the whole point of growing up is
To figure out how to live, not
To have someone controlling your every move.

If you want me to succeed,
Let me think,
Let me experiment, and most of all,
Let me fail.

Hamlet #5: The Role of Art

When speaking with the actor in Act III scene ii about how he wants the play to be acted, Hamlet makes a statement about the purpose of acting. He says, "the pur- / pose of playing, whose end, both at the first and / now, was and is to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to / nature, to show virtue her own feature, scorn her / own image, and the very age and body of time / his form and pressure" (III. ii. 21-26). Hamlet believes the purpose of acting is to portray real life and to criticize that which needs criticizing. This idea relates to another text we read this year, The Picture of Dorian Gray. In The Picture of Dorian Gray the portrait of Dorian serves to contrast Dorian's beauty with his personality flaws. In comparing The Picture of Dorian Gray to Hamlet's statement about the purpose of art, we can equate the portrait in The Picture of Dorian Gray to "playing" in Hamlet because both are examples of an art form that reflects aspects of life.

Hamlet #4: Polonius' Asides

During Polonius and Hamlet's first interaction, Polonius has a series of asides that highlight what he is truly thinking. Hamlet does not know who Polonius is and Polonius plays along believing it to help his cause. However, the audience knows the true identity of Polonius and Polonius' asides serve as the portrayal of the true Polonius' thoughts. In his first aside Polonius says, "How say you by that? Still harping on / my daughter. Yet he knew me not at first; he said I / was a fishmonger. He is far gone. And truly, in my / youth, I suffered much extremity for love, very near / this. I'll speak to him again" (II. ii. 204-208). Polonius is annoyed by the way Hamlet is talking about his daughter, but he realizes that Hamlet does not know who he or his daughter is and accounts that to the madness that he believes Hamlet had fallen into from his love of Ophelia. Polonius feels that he can empathize with Hamlet so he decides to continue to speak with him in hopes to discover something helpful. In Polonius' second aside he says, "Though this be madness, yet there is / method in 't" (II. ii. 223-224). Polonius realizes that although Hamlet has gone mad his madness is thought out, which seems to contrast the idea of madness. However, given Hamlet's level of intelligence it fits his character. In Polonius' third and final aside of this initial meeting he says, "How / pregnant sometimes his replies are! A happiness / that often madness hits on, which reason and / sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of. I / will leave him and suddenly contrive the means of / meeting between him and my daughter" (II. ii. 226-231). Polonius accounts the philosophical nature of Hamlet's statements to his madness claiming that a sane person could not make such statements. However, being a student of philosophy it is highly plausible that Hamlet could make such statements while sane. Polonius then decides to leave Hamlet while he plans how to prove his theory that Hamlet is mad because of his love for Ophelia. Each of Polonius' asides in this interaction with Hamlet give insight into Polonius' thoughts about Hamlet and his current state of mind.

Brain Fart

All of the sudden there's nothing;

Your brain has stopped working.

You try and try to make it start,

But it's too late to try and be smart.

Your brain is frozen,

It's stuck in it's tracks.

So much for the notion

That you can go and relax.

That brain fart came and made you far from great,

Because now you can't even think straight.