Praise Poem for Slam: Why Slam Causes Pain and Is a Good Thing By Bob Holman

Because Slam is Unfair.
Because Slam is too much fun.
Because poetry.
Because rules.
Because poetry rules. Because the poetry gets lost.
Because poetry is an endangered species Slam finds and revivifies.
Because you cannot reduce a poem to its numerological equivalent.
Because hey it’s poetry in everyday life every Sunday at 7:30 PM.
Because I can do that.
Because everybody’s voice is heard.
Because Old White Guys as usual.
Because it’s the opposite that includes the opposite.
Because do not institutionalize the anti-institutional!
Because it’s meant for middle and high schoolers so they get their adrenaline poetry shots.
Because Pepsi and Nike have conflicting ideas about the team uniforms.
Because competitive.
Because Allen Ginsberg says, “Slam! Into the Mouth of the Dharma!”
Because Gregory Corso says, “Why do you want to hang out with us old guys? If I was young, I’d be going to the Slam!”
Because Bob Kaufman writes, “Each Slam/a finality.”
Because Patricia Smith has more truth in her little finger than entire Boston Globe front page.
Because Marc Smith and because Chicago.
Because Nuyorican Poets Café and multi-culti.
Because Taos World Heavyweight Championship Poetry Bout.
Because rap is poetry, and hip hop is culture.
Because three minute pop song.
Because the point is not the points.
Because audience.
Because heckling.
Because judges selected whimsically are instant experts.
Because Dewey Decimal System of Slam Scorification reduces possibility of Ties and Dreaded Sudden-Death Spontaneous Haiku Overtime Round.
Because the National Slam is summer boot camp for poets.
Because first six years only women win Indy Slam Champ Boot.
Because local heroes finally have national community.
Because democratization of art.
Because Best Poet Always Loses.
Because cool mediaization of poetry is rooted in hot live performance of poetry.
Because when in the course it looks like poetry is disappearing, the furious uproar of the Word will not be stilled.
Because William Carlos Williams wrote, “It’s hard to find the news in poetry,” but we say, we’ve got news for you.
Because performance is a see-through page, and the oral tradition a hidden book
Because it’s called Slam.
“Praise Poem for Slam: Why Slam Causes Pain and Is a Good Thing” by Bob Holman Name:

Find three examples of metaphors and explain why they are effective metaphors.

Find one example of a pun or wordplay and explain why it is effective.
Find one example of paradox.
Find one example of situational irony.

Find two examples of random capitalization for emphasis and explain what you think is being emphasized.

Find the two lines that you think just “slam!” – they sound cool, or they express a cool idea, or they just pack some punch in them! Why did you pick them?

Slam poetry is performed poetry, oral poetry… poetry that has to sound good when delivered. Find two places where this poem has been written to sound good to the audience’s ears. What is effective about the sound of each example?

Make a point form list of what you now know about slam poetry, how it is written, performed, the rules of it, etc.