Slam Poetry Techniques

Slam Poetry Checklist

REQUIREDBeginning, middle, endRising intensityAt least one clear emotionAuthenticity -- from your heart?Audience appeal -- can we relate?

Slam Poetry Checklist

MENU of EIGHT OPTIONS1. Repeat an element at least three (up to

five) times, with variations2. Rhyme at least three times at the end of

a line (in the space of eight lines)3. Echo the beginning in the ending4. Soundplay: stretch the meaning of words

by combining them for their sounds (includes alliteration and internal rhyme)

Slam Poetry Checklist

MENU of EIGHT OPTIONS5. A switcheroo (reversal, inversion, twist)6. A line so long you can barely say it in one

breath7. Specific imagery (literal, or

metaphoric/symbolic)8. Punchline: strongest emotion in the last

line

the grocery storethe post officethe unemployment linethe local train platform at two in the

morningthis is where you will find poetry

Jessica Care Moore

when i get the money, i’m gonna pitch the first ball in the world series, and i’m gonna buy the stanley cup, and i’m gonna sit so close to andre agassi at wimbledon that i’ll be able to stab him over and over again in-between sets (and i’ll get away with it), and i’m gonna make jabba the hutt a quarterback, and i’m gonna be the towel boy for the laker girls, and i’m gonna force pro wrestlers to wrestle, and i’m gonna parachute off of manhattan skyscrapers, because i want to impress the simple of mind.

Beau Sia

On the table you put your feelingsin a box and said they were whole Wholly mine a moth-eaten sweaterBuried under layers of clothingeven in the strongest winter I'll never wear.Ava Chin

(Beginning) Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen.If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

...(Ending) But trust me on the sunscreen.Mary Schmich

I’m a nonbeliever and an overachiever, laid-back but fashion-forward. Upfront, downhome, low rent, high maintenance. Supersized, long lasting, high definition, fast acting, oven ready and built to last! I’m a hands-on, footloose, kneejerk headcase prematurely post-traumatic, and I’ve got a love child that sends me hate mail.

George Carlin

are you the first sonthe only sonthe last sonthe lost sonthe sun to my moonthe son who leavesSuheir Hammad

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Mary Schmich

my belly flip-flopsbelly flip-flopsland of smoke shopsdeath in hip-hopsblack justice at the hands ofwhite copsWillie Perdomo

He reminds the other dinner guests that it’s truewhat they say about teachers:

Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.I decide to bite my tongue instead of hisand resist the temptation to remind the dinner

guests that it’s also true what they say about lawyers.Because we’re eating, after all, and this is polite

conversation.Taylor Mali

even when Ali needed mo' machismohe put dopes on the rope with abutterfly float, flippant wristlet loose noose's gripTracie Morris

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Mary Schmich