What's in Your Poetry (inspired by the Capitol One credit card)

Last night was a great night in poetry. Let's start with the NEO-Soul Lounge, got there late, but a DAMN GOOD Crowd... Some talent is definitely flowing thru... Leena Marie is coming up (I got her on Soldier-watch). Bro Chuck came back from TCU on FIRE.... I missed that dude, he always SPITS TRUTH.. My gurl, Katrina, from London by way of Houston, TX, and Langdon who is visiting from London came thru. They even bumrushed the mic.. Hustle held it down with the music, put some old school on...hell, I even danced a bit. Earlier I was at Ego's, Home of the Austin Slam. LaLove Robinson, Matthew John Connoly and Christopher (FLAWLESS) Lee are on to the Austin Poetry Slam Finals. I was hyped! Lovie pulled a performance out of her A$$, she did a piece entitled "There I Said It", and it gave me chills. After she ripped the "shyt" out of the piece I had to ask her, "Who's your Coach"? Matthew performed the hell out of a piece called CONVERSE... the man is witty and funny as hell. And then... My GORSH!!! Yes, I meant to put the R there... Christopher "FLAWLESS" Lee, who now, occasionally goes by the moniker "Fluke". This MO'FCKR is BADDER then BAD.... I absolutely LOVE HIM AND HIS STYLE.... This Man not only WRITES HIS A$$ OFF, but PERFORMS THE SHYT out of them... He did one of my favorites "Sunflowers", but he has soooooo many that are my favorites... He is unbelievable. I almost cried, right there in the middle of Ego's I felt the pain in his words.. I wish he had a CD... cuz like Mo, Suheir, Taalam, Jive, Karega and Marc... I could listen to him forever. What's remarkable is that the BROTHER can recreate his piece every time... he does what I call re-mixes, switches stanzas, adds introductions, improvises, updates the piece... Matthew John Connoly also does that a lot, and I must add, very well... So just when you think you know the piece and can recite it with them, they f you up, and do it totally different. Not only do I spread love, but I also, speak truths.... Why are some poets still spitting the SAME SHYT that got them into the finals the previous 10 years? Okay, I exaggerate....but you get my point. I brought up Matthew and Chris, because they continue to refine and define their art and words. However, I have watched poets do the same delivery, with the same words and get nearly the same score, with the same "judges" (operative word SAME). At some point don't you think that you, as an artist, underestimate the audience and look to extend your credibility as an artist a little too far? When will your poetry card get revoked, canceled, asked to be renewed, I mean, something... Are you writing? Or are you like William Hung, thriving on that 15 minutes of pilfering from the oblivious and obscure? They're oblivious and obscure cuz they don't know you are saying the same shyt over, and over, and over, and over...., or worse, they don't care, cuz they like you so much they're afraid to tell you the truth. You're a regular, they're regulars, so let's do what regulars do, I'll give you the regular score for your regular poetry, CUZ IT'S THE RULE MAN, I MEAN NORM, MAN. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed, watching poets "take risks" by performing new pieces with very good delivery and score lower then the SAMENESS. It was ALSO VERY DISHEARTENING TO WATCH POETS READ ON PAPER DURING SEMI'S (No offense, but I've seen one person do it CONVINCINGLY and that's Beau Sia)... this is not an OPEN MIC, PEOPLE.. In the end, despite reading off paper, I believe they got it right, unlike 90 miles down the road. We'll see there's still three weeks left, who knows.. Not bitter, just hate the game... But I keep watchin' and participatin'... cuz i will be good at it.
13andtheysaythatshytain'tlucky