What Can I

(Watch the video)

[Verse 1:]

So, they ask me what’s poetry.

What can I do but tell you what this poet thinks?

Sit back, relax, and take a seat.

I’m going to do my best to spill the beans.

 

I was told that it’s all about technique,

Creativity, Format and rhyme schemes.

That’s true, but there’s more to it, too

than English grades, what’s on a page, and what people say.

 

Poetry is not just limericks.

It’s for the girl in her room writing lyrics,

For the boy making video graphics,

 and the late night soccer player working on her kicks.

 

And it’s for me. too.

If I dance on a stage or rap in a booth,

It’s a God-given gift that I’ll fight for to the tooth.

I’m a poet, if you didn’t even know it, and that’s the truth.

 

[Chorus:]

So they ask me what’s poetry.

What can I do, but tell you what this poet thinks?

So they ask me what’s poetry.

What can I, what can I, what can, what can, what can, what can?

 

So they ask me what’s poetry.

What can I do, but tell you what this poet thinks?

So they ask me what’s poetry.

What can I, what can I, what can, what can  that’s the truth

 

[Free Verse:]

I was in a house that we rented out in Fourth Grade

And the old (previous) people that lived there left a stereo.

I found the local radio stations, and I started listening to their music.

As one thing led to another, I found myself drawn to hip hop.

I realized that I had this love for hip hop music that I didn’t know about before.

 

And when you ask me “What is poetry?”,

I realize that what Hip Hop is for me,

That’s someone else’s Basketball.

That’s someone else’s Painting.

That’s someone else’s Science.

 

And I think that poetry is really

Taking the gift that God has put inside of you

And using it to create something beautiful.

To bless people.

To help people.

 

In all honesty, if I was to define poetry,

I’d say that each and every one of us gets to decide.

That’s poetry!

 

[ Chorus]