I have loved spoken word for as long as I can remember! I have a YouTube playlist that has near on 300 videos of Spoken Word poem that I love. I can easily get sucked in and before I know it, I’ve watched three hours worth of videos and I’ve been super unproductive, but it’s always worth it because afterwards I always feel so inspired. So I’ve decided to compile my absolute favourites to share with you in the hopes of more people being able to appreciate the art of spoken word. Enjoy!
Sarah Kay – If I Should Have A Daughter
Phil Kaye – Beginning, Middle & End
Sabrina Benaim – Explaining My Depression To My Mum
Jeanann Verlee – Unsolicited Advice to Adolescent Girls with Crooked Teeth and Pink Hair
Rudy Francisco – A Lot Like You
Guante – Ten Responses to the Phrase ‘Man Up’
Charlotte Higgins – Auto-Complete
Rives – If I Controlled the Internet
Rives – Mockingbird
Matt Mason – Notes for my Daughters Against Chasing Storms
Glass – A Spoken Word Poem.
And for a while my only friend was the glass in my hand,
The liquor slipping down my throat, the only warm touch I needed.
The ice the only thing I dare let linger on my lips
For fear of being burned.
The voice in my head chanting ‘its okay’
Until the words just blur into one.
‘s’k, s’k, s’k’.
The strength of lifting my hand to my mouth
Rewarded by the rush than ran through me,
The shiver that shook my body,
When it was too strong,
When there was far too much alcohol, in comparison to pop.
Just like there’s far too many emotions for me to deal with in this small body of mine.
A sip for sadness, a sip for regret, a sip for loneliness,
A gulp for rage, a gulp for courage,
A glass for clarity.
This friend in my hand, was more delicate than I,
Drop me, I will hurt but I will not break.
Break my friend and they’ll shatter into a million tiny pieces,
My secrets whispered into the rim along with them.
My confessions spoken into the glass,
Released for a moment,
Weight off my shoulders,
Only to weigh twice as much when I drink them back down,
For having the time to clarify them.
Tremors – A Spoken Word Poem.
Raise your arm above your head,
Apply pressure to the wound,
Slow your breathing,
Calm down,
Feel time stop.
There was so much blood.
Bright crimson,
I’ve decided that particular shade
Does not look good on my skin.
I have scrubbed and scrubbed
But I still see it.
Blood on my hands
When I close my eyes,
I have never felt so helpless.
I have steady hands.
Got them from my father
Who taught me to always stand strong
Stand tall.
Steady hands hold us up
Make sure we don’t fall.
He had workers hands,
Years of holding people up
Years of hard work
Ingrained into his palms.
I never heard him complain.
He would walk around
Palms facing up,
Battle scars on show
This is where I’ve been
And he gave them to me.
Taught me to lock your wrists
When the going gets tough,
You need strong hands he’d say
In case someone
Needs something to hold onto.
My hands never shook as bad as that night.
I’m sorry I couldn’t hold you up any longer.
Tremors though my body
I was not used to this.
I’ve heard people call it shock,
But can you really be shocked
By something you were waiting for.
Raise your arm above your head.
I hold it there.
I’m not sure anymore
If it’s me or you shaking so much.
I tell myself it’s you
Adrenaline coursing through your veins,
I have never seen you so pale.
Apply pressure to the wound
To stem the bleeding,
To try and stop the hurting.
Apply pressure
Apply pressure
Apply pressure
Here
Here
And here
To stem the bleeding,
Please stop the hurting,
Slow your breathing.
Apply pressure
Raise your arm
I exaggerate my breaths,
Make you copy me
Put your hand to my chest
This is what you need to do.
Feel this.
Be this.
Calm down.
Slow your breathing
Apply pressure
Raise your arm.
Its going to be okay,
We’re going to get through this.
I still love you.
I will always love you.
Feel time stop.
Calm down
Slow your breathing
Apply pressure to the wound
Raise your arm above your head.
I don’t clock you at first
Still reeling from our fight.
I notice the pool of red on the floor.
I stop breathing when I see you.
I feel time stop.
I do not have steady hands anymore.
Featured Image – padhokhelo
Can We? – A Spoken Word Poem.
Can we just skip to the good part?
The part where you trace my body like a map with your tongue.
Can we skip to early morning cuddles
Under the covers
Filled with last night’s secrets?
Can we skip to not being able to live without you?
To feeling the weight of your hands on my skin
Even when you’re not there.
To the ‘I don’t think you’ve ever looked happier’.
To the ‘its because he makes me happy’.
Can we move to the part
Where you hold me tight
So you know I’m still breathing.
Where you hold me tight
So I know I’m still alive.
The part where waking up in the morning
Isn’t an effort anymore,
Isn’t a chore anymore.
Or to the part where I walk around
In nothing but your shirt,
Just to see the look in your eyes.
Can we skip to the part
Where being with you is easy?
To where I feel whole again?
Where life feels complete again?
Can we?
Featured Image – padhokhelo
Broken – A Spoken Word Poem.
You told me you loved me
Eight weeks in.
Just outright said it.
Staring like you could see my soul,
Smile like a million watts.
I thought you were delusional,
Told you so,
Laughed it off,
Tried to make you feel better for thinking you ever could,
Carried on as normal,
You didn’t press it.
The first time I told you
It came out as a smile,
I couldn’t get the words past my teeth,
Stuck in my throat
I left them there to age like good wine.
The next time I told you I loved you
Was when our lips touched,
Barely,
Under the stars.
The time after that was a squeeze of your hand
While my head rested on your shoulder,
It was one time after that
I eventually managed to say
I like you, like a lot.
The last time I told you
That I loved you
Involved tears and screams
And words puncturing our armour.
You wondered why it was hard for me
I told you, you didn’t understand
Because you weren’t in my head.
You told me that I was being stupid
That I wasn’t being fair
That sometimes you felt like the only one in this relationship.
I asked you why?
Was it because of the times I flinched when you caught me off guard?
The way I’d get trapped in my head
And see his face instead of yours?
The nights you found me asleep on the floor
Because I couldn’t breath with the weight of your arm
Wrapped around me?
You sigh.
Resigned.
As if we’d had the same conversation before.
I tell you I’m broken.
You tell me you know.
I remind you again,
Broken,
Emphasis it.
Try to make you understand,
You were the one fixing me,
But I hadn’t come with all the pieces to start with
This was never going to be a quick fix.
I tell you I love you,
And you tell me you know.
Featured Image – padhokhelo
Come Back To Me – A Spoken Word Poem.
If you would just come back to me, love
Is not just a four letter word to me, love
Is the way you make me fall over my own feet
In the hope that you would catch me, love
Is how I think I might have a heart attack
Every time you smile, love
Is making you laugh
So I can see you smile
I do not care about the heart ache
I do not care about the awkward pauses
Or the emptiness of your room
I worry that if you stare too long
You will find something
I have tried so hard to hide
That if I let your touch linger too long
You will feel the dents and the puncture wounds
They have not healed properly yet
I don’t think they ever will
I worry one day you will not smile
That I will fall flat because your arms will not catch me
That you might one day find yourself
Humming the tune to a record
You do not even know the words to
That was our song
I worry that you have started to picture the future without me
I think you are happier there
Featured Image – padhokhelo
Muscle Memory – A Spoken Word Poem.
Sometimes I feel like I am losing you,
Like you are slipping through my fingers,
Like you are taking back the parts of my heart
You had once branded as your own,
You will not stay long enough to stitch up the cuts,
I would not ask you to.
Sometimes I feel like I am losing you,
Like you are a record that has started to skip,
I know it will not last long much longer
Until the tune is unrecognisable,
I continue to play it anyway.
Keep changing the time on the clock,
Setting it back a few minutes
Just to try and buy some more time with you.
You are my favourite mistake,
All I want to do is relive that moment
Again and again,
Warm hands on cold skin,
Gasps with every touch
You make me feel alive.
Made me feel alive.
And the smile,
Oh that smile
Makes me forget about tomorrow.
I forget everything else
All I understand is you and I
In this very moment,
So close our breath entwines
Hearts beating the same rhythm
I can do this
I understand this.
Your fingers trace my sides,
Lazily,
Like muscle memory.
Like this moment has been engraved
Into our memory from the very beginning.
I run my fingers through your hair,
Like muscle memory.
My fingers twine through it
Like breeze through grass,
My fingers feel at home here.
Our lips find each other,
Like muscle memory.
Soft and hard all at once
I couldn’t ask for more
But if I could I’d want more time.
More time to be together
Bodies so close your warmth surrounds me like a blanket,
I have not stopped thinking about it since you left.
The last breath we exchange
Is deep and heavy.
I close my eyes,
Savour the goosebumps that litter my skin,
The only indication you were ever here.
Hands grasp air.
Fingers twitch.
Eyes open.
Your back retreats,
Hair perfectly intact,
Hands buried so deep into pockets
They could not touch skin
Even if they wanted to.
Featured Image – padhokhelo