Poems by Taylor Mali

[melluransa]

Haha! I love that he performs them too. This guy is, like, my hero... you know?

Totally like whatever, you know?
by Taylor Mali

In case you hadn't realized, it has somehow become uncool to sound like you know what you're talking about?

Or believe strongly in what you're, like, saying?

Invisible question marks and parenthetical, "you-know's" and, "you-know-what-I'm-saying's" have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?

Even when those sentences aren't, like...questions?

Declarative sentences, so called because they used to like, you know, declare things to be true, okay?

As opposed to other things that are totally, you know, not?

They've been infected by this tragically cool and totally hip interrogative tone?

As if I'm saying, "Don't think I'm a nerd just like I've noticed this, okay?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions
I'm just, like, inviting you to join me on the bandwagon of my own...uncertainty?"



What has happened to our conviction?

Where are the limbs, out on which we once walked?

Have they been, like, chopped down with the rest of the rainforest? You know?

Or do we have, like, nothin' to say?

Has society has just become so filled with these conflicting feelings of nyeh-yeh,

That we've just gotten to the point where we're the more aggressively inarticulate generation to come along since, you know, a long time ago... you know?!

So I implore you, I entreat you, and I challenge you to speak with conviction.

To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks the determination with which you believe it.

Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker, it is not enough these days to simply "question authority."

You gotta speak with it, too.

What does a teacher make?

Any language, much less english

That one had a great message, one I live by. It's all about getting the message across. You can say something many different ways, so long as the core message is communicated.


Depression too, is a kind of fire.

Undivided attention

Comments

[zeph317toho.livejournal.com]

LOL at the first one. That's, like, really true. I hate when I catch myself talking like that. I have a cousin who says "ya know?" in every sentence during a conversation. I want to assure her that, in fact, I DO know. It drives me nuts.

Ouch on the depression one. It was very powerful in so few words.

I wish I'd had teachers who believed like he does in the "What Does a Teacher Make" video. That was inspiring.