A Poem Is

[Verse: Jill Scott]
Actress act
Poets write poems
It's in the ink for me
Still just feels necessary, involuntary
Poem's decree
Scribing
In fact, the hateful didn't want us reading or writing
So be careful of those mesmerizing, memorizing
Signifying acts
Solely only for the hands to crash
Popping corn, cadences
Over practiced entertaining shit
Great monologues are cousins to poetry
But let that word do its dirty dirt
Write, now
Put it down and let them read, hurt
You are not alone, rebirth
She, he, them begins again
Is the writing illuminating?
Is your thought thought-worthy?
Without all the personalities and the seasonings?
A poem is an unsafe plank
A universal, deeply personal revolution
A poem is a riot
A good poem will make you sit in your goddamn car
By your goddamn self
And be quiet

[Outro: Tank and the Bangas]
I like that, Jill