What Is Spoken Word?

Kamal Imani ©04/13
What is spoken word?
Spoken Word is that pain, running through my veins and circumnavigating through by brain then transmitting, spitting out of my mouth
Spoken word is that MC master of ceremonies, who knows how to rock the house.
That spoken word in the beginning that made every living thing
Emanating from every creature, from lions roaring to the birds that sing
Cause every creature with sense will either allow it self to vent or automatically give praise to the king.
Spoken word is that child that’s got it’s own thing.
Those lil girls jumping double dutch that talk with their necks, got their hands on they hips, eyes rolling and fingers snapping
Now That’s spoken word!
Spoken words got rhythm and cadence,
sounds wack coming from a nerd
Some times the rhymes come with African drums
And Some times, you hear it from the winos and bums, sitting on milk crates
But they say some sly ish like
“every day above ground is a blessed day so take it one day at a time my brother, and by the way, you got a dollar so I could get me a little something to eat?
And you remember the time when you were down and weak
So you hit him with some non verbal communication in the form of cash and watch him happily run off to the store in a dash, now that’s spoken word
Spoken word is a fusion of the blues, hip hop R&B and some times comedy
The poet is a healer, medicine man, high priestess, witch doctor and counselor
Giving the listener divine therapy
Spoken word is Africans and Native Americans Chanting
Babies moma’s ranting, Rastafarians reasoning
Backwoods preachers preaching
Church parishioners reaching for a supernatural insperience
It’s al humdu Allah and Hallelujah
It’s the people of the village communing
To the town cipher we’re all bringing
Something from our hearts and minds
when in joy-- and when aching
Realizing that at the end of the day and at the end of our journeys
We, all need the same thing.
Some one to listen to our joy & our pain
And that is spoken word!

Download on kamalimani.bandcamp.com/track/what-is-spoken-word