The Poem Is the Research - Accessible Transcript

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I.

the poem is the research &
these bars are the method

I said what I said to scholars
triangulating circles as their method

I said what I said to
switch up the flow, technique & method

for how we come to know 
the nameless hunger of loss as method

my lines aided & abetted
the murder of their method

forever indebted to poets and MCs
I sweated at 16 / writing rhymes as their method

Listen: its spoken words on hot mics,
rhymes tight, the body is a breakbeat method

that channels the Godself
inside the fractured skull of method

testify / witness / pray / 
sing / worship / as method

holy & whole, we
remix, collage, mosaic method

take to the mic at night poet
it’s all just a moonlight method

it’s the why to the how 
to the 1, 2, & we don’t stop method

forgiveness is a eucharist
on the tongue of this method

this poem is the slant of the
sun through stain glass method

so spit poem as research, poet,
these bars are the method

II.

this poem is searching for itself
in the transcript 

it’s coding itself 
into colorless containers of category 

it’s apologizing for the lack 
of citations in its hands 

it has come empty & longing 
for peer review

in a special issue where 
it will die behind a pay wall

the corpse of this poem 
is hanging from the window 

of someone’s dissertation
on the eve of their defense 

it’s all rot & bone 
& teeth & spit 

this poem, a contortionist
bending itself into spaces

that are indifferent to the life 
of the poem, to the poet

this poem is trying so hard 
to be more than a poem

but it does not know how to
undress for anyone other than itself
    

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