I Am A Woman
What If We Kissed (excerpt)
My Letter To Hip Hop (excerpt)
What Is A Poet
Fully Equipped

_________________________

WHAT IS A POET?

a poet is raw and unashamed,
then finds a way
to ease your frustrations
with a comforting rage,
sooth your spirits,
like the smoke of sage.
a poet keeps you totally engaged,
with epic sentiments,
that have you
on the edge of your emotions,
make you feel dizzy
with lyrical potions.

a poet knows how to
hold you down
and tie you up with words,
flip it in a way
like you've never heard.
got you rapped so tight,
you fight the urge... to exhale
so you won't miss a syllable.
a poet is full,
to the brim,
with antonyms
like he was liberated,
while imprisioned.
because life is about
our own descions.

a poet will expose themselves,
in a room full of people,
and treat everyone equal,
when inviting them
to stick their fingers
into open wounds.
then bandage them back up
with metaphors like,
her gaze pierced my sobriety.
because a look might mean more to you,
than it does to me.

a poet lives on faith,
when there is nothing else left.
wake up and have haikus for breakfast,
munch on chapbooks for lunch,
eat open mics for dinner,
for dessert become the next slam winner..
then take a big drink,
and wash it all down with ink,
sink their teeth
into the core of your pain.
turn around and plant a love sonnet
in the warm summer rain.

a poet writes because if they don't
there heart will decay.
a poet asks questions like
the great Marvin Gaye
when he used to say:
"Whats going on"?
belt out a poem like
Billie Holiday crooning a song.
a poet dances with phrases,
like Josephine Baker.
combines all of the above
and puts it down on paper.

a poet will re-enact
childhood memories,
for pennies,
because they know
a penny for your thoughts
is more valuable
then any amount of bling bling.
a poet shares poems for freedom,
like a bird spreads it wings.
a poet will sing...
poems of redemption for everyone who
has ever been oppressed.
a poet it obsessed,
with things like
love, music, and revolution,
and dreams of finding
a peaceful solution.

a poet is a rhyme inside
a saxaphone solo.
and you may never know,
what causes sideways words
to fall from a pen.
and i dont know when,
i became a poet...
but i am.

so sometimes i follow,
and sometimes i lead.
sometimes i script
and sometimes i bleed,
onto cd,
to sell on street corners
just to get through,
because being a poet
isn't just what u say,
it's about what you do.
it's fighting for
what you believe in,
and they way that you live.
its less about what you take,
and more about what you give.

poetry is a compelation
of expeirences
and we all have have those.
and everyday
is a new chance to grow,
and if nothing else,
i hope this poem will show it..
inside each one of us lives a poet.

copyright 2004 bridget gray

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_________________________

I Am A Woman
What If We Kissed (excerpt)
My Letter To Hip Hop (excerpt)
What Is A Poet
Fully Equipped