Slam+Poetry

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media type="custom" key="7979190" align="right" **Totally like whatever, you know?**

In case you hadn't noticed, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about? Or believe strongly in what you're saying? Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)'s have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences? Even when those sentences aren't, like, questions? You know? Declarative sentences - so-called because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true as opposed to other things which were, like, not - have been infected by a totally hip and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know? Like, don't think I'm uncool just because I've noticed this; this is just like the word on the street, you know? It's like what I've heard? I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay? I'm just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty? What has happened to our conviction? Where are the limbs out on which we once walked? Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rain forest? Or do we have, like, nothing to say? Has society become so, like, totally. . . I mean absolutely. . . You know? That we've just gotten to the point where it's just, like. . . whatever! And so actually our disarticulation. . . ness is just a clever sort of. . . thing to disguise the fact that we've become the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since. . . you know, a long, long time ago! I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you, I challenge you: To speak with conviction. To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it. Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak with it, too.

I think the overall meaning of this poem is to have confidence. Taylor Mali isn’t saying that we don’t care, "...our disarticulation . . . ness is just a clever sort of . . . thing to disguise the fact that we've become the most aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since . . .you know, a long, long time ago!". He’s saying that we’re scared to fight for what we care about; we’re scared of being wrong and getting laughed at. Instead of berating us non-stop he is challenging us, challenging us to stand up for what we believe in. I don’t enjoy being wrong very much. I don’t think people in general enjoy being wrong and feeling stupid. I find myself hiding behind questions because you can’t be wrong if you haven’t actually stated anything. But by speaking in questions and never actually standing up for anything nothing will get accomplished, “…it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY. You have to speak it too.”. I chose this poem because I agree with everything Taylor Mali has said. We claim to stand up for things but once someone challenges us we start questioning ourselves until be back down. We can’t even decide what side we are actually on. We constantly change our minds because we are in fact “…aggressively inarticulate…”. This poem is actually inspirational and after watching and reading this poem I accept Taylor Mali’s challenge "To speak with conviction". I might not be in the streets protesting for animal rights or anything but I’ll start small. I’ll try to speak with conviction even if I’m only defending something as small as my favourite ice cream flavour. One of the poetic devices used is irony. Taylor Mali is using slang to criticize the use of slang. There is also repetition, half the sentences are spoken like a question, even though they're not, to emphasize his point that our generation speaks in questions. The repetition of the words "you know" and "like" are also used to emphasize that point.