Poetry Slam Poems

Ok, back in high school I participated in two poetry slams. One my sophomore and one my junior year, unfortunately they never had one my senior year which was lame. The first one "The Story Of Jack Warner" I actually one the slam with my sophomore year and the second "The Bridge Burner" won me best romantic poem the year after, which is weird because its about cheating but whatever. Both are rather long and I actually memorized both for the slams. I think its good to memorize your work, makes the performance better and your less nervous on stage. Anyway hope you enjoy.

“The Story Of Jack Warner”
By: Michael Malpiedi


This story about to be told
Is about my friend Jack Warner
A boy who couldn’t look in the mirror
That old fun house mirror
Where all he saw was some beastly abomination
A demented monstrosity
A ghastly demon
An unholy being
That no one could ever love, desire
A horrid clown performing in a circus of agony
That he called his life
A boy who felt he was a loner
Because everyone around him
Had found love
Been loved
Felt love’s gracious touch
But not Jack
Jack had yet to feel its gentle hand
He wanted, needed it
But didn’t believe he could ever have it
He had told a girl he loved her
Her name was Sally
She was Jack’s goddess whom he worshipped
His true vision of perfection
Aphrodite’s true sister
Who he would have fought for
Killed for
Died for
But when Jack spoke his words of passion and romance
She looked at Jack like he was crazy
Didn’t even utter a word to him
Leaving him in the dust
Now everyday his pain grew worse
Jack’s heart, Jack’s mind, even his very soul
All maimed
He felt crying, but tears never came to his face
His emotions broken
Scattered across the floor like a puzzle
A puzzle never to be put together
So one day Jack could no longer stand it
He ran home from school
He just wanted the pain to stop
He rushed to his room and close the door
Now Jack’s pain was slowly creeping up on his sanity
His mind was caving in
As darkness was slowly surrounding his trembling body
He looked out the window
And saw a raven and a dove perched outside his window
He swore he heard them speak heard them debating
Listening to the raven’s chuckle
Finally I’ve waited years for this day
Come on Jack let the darkness take you
It’ll end all your pain
Let it consume your empty heart
Don’t hesitate, Don’t resist
Just slip into that dark abyss
The dove retorted quickly
No he mustn’t,
Come on Jack don’t be a fool
You life isn’t beyond saving
Don’t do it
Just look inside yourself and see the light
You know a bright future lies beyond all this
A life of success and happiness
A loving family to cherish
With that beautiful, clichéd house on the beach
Where it never rains
And the sun is always there
Never fading
Or on that crystal clear lake
That lake that never darkens
It just shines brighter and clearer everyday
Just think about it Jack
Don’t give up on these dreams
Make them real Jack
Now Jack had crossed over to insanity
Not knowing what to do
Who to believe, what to believe
He was so blinded by the pain
The confusion
The insanity
Just wanting these hellish apparitions
To leave his eyes, his mind
But they persisted
And the raven chimed in once more
Come on Jack I don’t have all day
Come Jack lets be realistic
Your only two friends are agony and pain
They are your best friends
Who live with you in your sad little world
Where you are a ghost
Where the heavens cry cause the have to see your face
Where every creature waits for your demise
Where love is Brutus’ sword
Where passion is Macbeth’s corrupted mind
Where romance is a mere mirage that kills the weak hearted
So give your soul to your eternal nightmare
Let the sleepless night have you
Cause your mind and your heart are slowly fading
They’re your personally reaper
So grabs it hand and let it take you
Let it lead you into that endless night
Don’t fear it, go to it
It beckons you
But the dove came in once more
Come on Jack you’re stronger than this
You have the heart of a lion
Just open its cage
Let it fight this demon
It can be you savior if you let it free
And don’t give up on love
Because its not corrupted, it’s not a fool’s death
Love is as truthful and pure as God himself
Passion is the word he speaks
Romance is the gift he has given to us
Don’t let that gift be taken
And you angel of desire
Your eloquent goddess
Is out there just waiting for your love
You just have to find her Jack
You have to search for her
Just look beyond this nightmare
Look beyond the hell of today
And see the heaven that awaits you
But Jack can’t hear the dove’s plea
Too hypnotized by the darkness in that raven’s eyes
Hell’s personal messenger
He slowly lets the darkness fill his fragile body
It slowly crushes every inch of his body
He lets out an ear shattering scream
The darkness was just toying with him
Like a maleficent puppeteer
Playing with its frail martinet
With broken strings
Putting on a distorted show of malice and despair
Choking every bit of life out of its already empty victim
He cries out in anguish
Now Sally’s walking down the street
Coming to Jack’s home, coming to confess her feelings
Her true feelings that she couldn’t express before
Because love had never touched her either
She had never felt love’s gracious hand
And Jack’s words of passion and romance
Were like a grenade
That just exploded in Sally’s face
And just she couldn’t comprehend at first
But she knew she couldn’t let Jack go
She knew she couldn’t let his love faded away
So she was coming to Jack’s home
And she looked up and saw Jack
Saw him thrashing about, howling in despair
She screamed and she ran for his house
As the raven was laughing
The dove was crying
And Jack was slowly fading into the emptiness
Sally burst through the door
She cried Jack no
I love you Jack
Please Jack I love you
And now Jack is crying for the first time
Not because of pain or anguish
But because love had touched him
Love had finally touched his unloved existence
And he held Sally close
As he watch that raven fly back to Hades
And the dove smiling as it flew to the heavens
And Jack kissed Sally’s pale and fragile lips
As the skies parted like the Red Sea
Jack and Sally slowly rose into the heavens
Never letting go of one another
Just rising higher and higher into that eloquent blue sky
Into the golden light of are fair sun
Their lips were locked in a endless kiss
Never to be separated, never to be ended
And there they float for all eternity
With a love that can never be destroyed
And so ends the story of Jack Warner
The strong hearted and loved… Jack Warner


“ The Bridge Burner ”

People have always said
That it’s never good
To burn your bridges
To end relationships
On a bad note
Or with a negative vibe
But imagine
Just for second
Two beautiful islands
Endless waving coasts of sand
Waves slowly crashing
Caressing the soft shore
Now picture a bridge
One bridge connecting the two
A bridge built and carved
As if built by the hands of God himself
Picture light of the sun
Cascading from the sky
Gently lighting one small portion
Of that heavenly bridge
A spot light on the center stage
Revealing the players that have been placed
One woman
One man
The man holding the woman in his arms
Whispering sweet nothings into her ear
Saying you’ll always be mine
And there’s no one else but you
And she smiles
And buries her warm face against his chest
But she can’t see the man true face
As a sinister smile sweeps across his face
His hand slowly creeping into her pocket
Taking all she has to give
Her hopes
Dreams
Happiness
She can’t feel her life being taken
The knife that’s being driven into her back
Because his hallow words of love
Are numbing the pain
She hangs around his arm
Gets dragged around like a rag doll
A dog that comes
When its master calls
Tells her to sit
Stay
Roll over
And she does it without question
A mere trophy
That he only takes out
When it needs to be polished
A kind of man
That would make any Buchanan proud
Kind of man who has no sense of morals
Just knows what he wants when he wants it
And she’s just become to blind to see
The false Eden that he has created
Is a merely a collapsing house of usher
So everyday
She comes across that bridge
And she jumps in his arms
Telling him she loves him
And she’s so glad to see him
And he smiles
And says I’ve been waiting for you
And I couldn’t live another second without you
And she hangs around his neck like an old tie
One that he just likes to put on
From time to time
And she gives him all the love she’s got
And he just shrugs it off
He asks her to excuse him for a moment
As he goes off into the dark jungles
Of the so called paradise
And she sits and waits
Thinking of only him
And the romance she believes they share
But not even a moment later
She hears a faint laugh in the distance
A soft girlish laugh
As the overwhelming smell
Of lust and deceit
Are emitted from the wretched jungle
That lies before her
As if Dante’s nine leveled inferno
Is just beyond the twisted, overgrown trees
So she sprints through that forbidden jungle
Coming out to a darker side of the island
Where all she can see
Is a heavenly bridge
A bridge that looks
As if it were built by God himself
And the light of the sun
Cascading down from the sky
Gently lighting a small portion of the bridge
A spot light on the center stage
Revealing the players that have been placed
One woman
One man
The man holding the woman in his arms
Whispering sweet nothings into her ear
Saying you’ll always be mine
And there’s no one else but you
And she smiles
And buries her warm face against his chest
And now stands near the end
Of that eternally dark and hellish jungle
And she sees her lover
In his true devilish form
And she cries
Because her eyes are now open
See can see her Eden
Is an utterly horrific Pit and Pendulum
And those two islands
Now bare wastelands
The waves no longer caressing the shore
But instead mercilessly beat down the coast
And there once heavenly bridge
Now an old rotten piece of nothing
And she stands
Crying and almost breathless
Trying to make sense
Of her situation
Trying mend her now broken heart
She was a beautiful woman once
A now stands a crazed and hurt Ophelia
Wore out by her Hamlet’s antic disposition
She cries out to the heavens
She runs across the once magnificent bridge
And does the only thing that seems right
She lights that match
And she lets that piece of nothing
Burn, Burn
Burn into blackish ash
Which only makes it look beautiful
To her new eyes
She watches the flames
As they dance around that bridge
As the flames laugh and cry with joy
Because they knew she understood
The woman begins to walk away
She knew that the fire
Burned with enough regret
Pain
Sorrow
To get the job done
And as she walked away
She could her the man’s voice
Saying what have you done
And you won’t find anyone better than me
And she says nothing
Cause she can here the fire chuckle
As it speaks with a large and fierce voice
How dare you speak
To this pure goddess that you have wronged
Turn around and sink into that pit
That you call a home
Or it won’t just be this bridge
That I’ll be burning
And she walks on
And the bridge falls
Sinks into the sea’s abyss
And the ash and darkness clear from the sky
And the light reveals
Thousands of islands
Thousands of people
That she has been kept from
And she smiles
Because she can only imagine
All the new bridges
Relationships
That can be built
So yes
Bridges don’t have to be burned
If you don’t want to harm
The person who help build it
But sometimes those people aren’t always good
Or maybe you have a past you want to leave behind
And if that’s the case
You just got to let them burn
So that you can escape
The severe darkness and depression
Of a life past
Or to forget the demons that have wronged you
So you can go on
And construct new bridges
Relationships
That will not
And cannot be burned
Ones that will last for years
Decades
Centuries
Eons
And as you burn and rebuild
You’ll one day make it
To that island paradise
That you always deserved
And through heavens and hells of life
Become the person
You were always meant to be