i’ve heard tell of haiku and sonnet, limerick and pantoum, and whatnot, but here are the kinds of poems that i am used to hearing as a performance poet.
backwards and forwards poems.
tongue twisters. essays. love poems.
anaphora anaphora anaphora.
slam.
circular poems. biographic.
sing-songy. rap. screaming
poems. snap your fingers.
stomp your feet poems.
religion. politics. revolution.
talkin bout music or the media poems.
love. lust. hate. breakup poems.
nature
and animals.
molestation and rape.
take your breath and
make you scream poems.
goosebumps and chills.
family. story poems.
funny. stupid and sorry poems.
Published by JBT
Born in Washington, DC and raised in Crofton, Maryland, Jonathan B. Tucker (JBT) is a writer, performer, educator, DJ, and dreamer passionate about poetry, youth empowerment, racial and social justice, and finding purpose through service to others. He has received numerous awards and artist fellowships, and has performed and taught at schools, libraries, detention centers, museums, and conferences around the world. His poems have appeared in Howard University’s Amistad Journal alongside the late Amiri Baraka (Howard University, 2011), in Etan Thomas’s anthology Voices of the Future (Haymarket Books, 2012), in two self-published chapbooks (jonathan b. tucker, 2010; and i got the matches, 2012), and on the stages of the Kennedy Center and the South African State Theatre. JBT represented DC at the National Poetry Slam in 2009 and 2010, and has helped coordinate and coach the DC Youth Slam Team with Split This Rock since 2011.
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