This is the poem I am going to read tonight. There are probably very good reasons why 57 year old white men should not attempt rap, but I’m going for it anyway.
When you say good morning, it becomes a good morning
It’s a greeting when you’re meeting
Not a threat or a warning
It’s a positive statement, it’s a good vibration
Puts a nice, little spin on the current situation
When you say good morning, nobody is alarmed
It’s a chain of good karma and it does no harm
But it’s more than just that
Words are more than just sounds
Expulsions of the breath that push air molecules around
When we say good morning, it’s a wish, it’s a prayer
It’s a magic incantation that two people can share
I wish you well, I sincerely hope
That you don’t have any problems with which you can’t cope
Even if you are a perfect stranger to me
Because I can guarantee, you’re not stranger THAN me
If we’re talking about our relative deviations from the mean
I’m about the strangest person that you ever have seen
But together we have the power to communicate
because
Words have the power to state things
Words have the power to rate things
Words have the power to change and rearrange
And define and redesign and create things
Every noun is a name and no two things are the same
When you name them then you tame them
And you put them in a frame
They can help you make a plan
Yes, they can, yes, they can
They can help you give directions, they can make you understand
Words have the power to amaze and to astound
They are thoughts inside our heads represented by sounds
Every word has a meaning, it’s a specific identification
In the map of your mind it’s like a GPS location
When you open up you piehole and you let the words fly
You take possession of the universe and the stars up in the sky
You have an image in your mind of the birds and the trees
And the leaves moving in reaction to the afternoon breeze
And I can see it too because I’m a lot like you
So if you choose the right words to use then they are bound to ring true
Because
Words have the power to state things
And words have the power to rate things
And words have the power to change and rearrange
And define and redesign and create things
If you have an idea and you put some words around it
It’s a brand new thing, it’s a treasure that you’ve found
If you treat it like a seed that you plant in the ground
Pretty soon you’ll have a tree with lots of fruit hanging down
Words are like water and they flow like a stream
Like a river to the ocean in a never ending dream
Words are like a fire that is burning in the night
Words can inspire, they can shine a little light
Because
Words have the power to state things
And words have the power to rate things
Words have the power to change and rearrange
And define and redesign and create things
very nice..
Missing Persons, “Spring Session M”
Only if you mean it. Fer example, I was at kmart the other day and the clerk ringing up my order said, “Hi, how are you?” To which I said, “Fine. But if I felt bad, would you do something about it?” I wasn’t trying to be a shit – it comes naturally – but are you just saying “how are you” to hear yourself speak, or do you really want to know?
If a doctor says “How are you?” then they really want to know. With everybody else, it’s just a formality, a ritual. But I guess the point of my poem, sort of, is that I prefer that ritual to its absence.
Good, you just need a beat box behind it for accompaniment. Have a good morning!