This masterpiece of slam poetry is, quite simply put, Scintillating.

MSA 2009 Slam Poetry: 16 year old Taylor Phillips performing her brilliant slam “Well, Thank You”.

Well, Thank You-by Taylor Phillips

When I found out there was going to be a slam,
I went straight to my dorm room, pen in hand
Ready to compose the next grand
Word symphony
To give a worldwide audience a personal epiphany
To write a poem for everyone,

I had censored before I’d even begun.
In a world where only 25% of adolescents read outside of class
How many are going to listen to a 16 year old slam
And know enough to give a damn.
I wanna write a poem
that only the worthy can understand

I wanna write a poem for smart people.
For true knowledge comes from the heart people,
For the search for that truth is an art people
For finish what you start people.

I wanna write a poem for gifted kids
Teens with minds like Pringles lids,
Once you pop, the fun don’t stop,
I wanna speak for the cream of the crop

Geniuses of the 21st Century, this is for you

Because you know “Live long and prosper” was first said on Vulcan
And when you solve a rubix cube too slowly,
You don’t stop sulkin until you win yet another chess match
In 17 moves flat
Or dip a tennis ball in a 3 liter vat of
Liquid nitrogen
Which we all know,
Is atomic #7.

I wanna write a poem for the scholastically driven
Who use their cerebellums to better the world we live in
And who don’t have to look up cerebellum to know
That they’re seeing this all thanks to their occipital lobe.

I wanna be the poet for the know-it-alls
Making metaphors from the trajectory of ping pong balls
Who knows that density is M over V
And the decimal of one third is point repeating three

I wanna write a poem for the literarily inclined
Who turn to Frost and Dickinson to find
The same drama as Desperate Housewives
Who make Styrofoam and saxophones pertain somehow to their lives
For those who say scintillati ng instead of doubleplusgood
And irked instead of irritated
Enthralled instead of fascinated
Proclaimed in lieu of simply “stated”
Deplorable instead of hated
Opaque instead of shaded
The brilliant and jaded
And seldom celebrated for the selves that they’ve created
And the many,
No,
The PLETHORA,
Of lives that they will change.

I wanna write a poem for kids with good grammar.
Who know that if someone asks how you’re doing
How Y-O-U apostrophe to the R-E doing.
You say WELL, thank you
And can differentiate between whom and who
And lie and lay
And which and that
Who never ask the question “where are you AT?”
Because at’s a preposition, we don’t end sentences like that

I wanna write a poem for the kids at MSA
Who when I say BOOMBA
Respond with HEY!
We’re going to rule the freaking world someday
It’s FUN to be brilliant
But schools make it a chore
And I don’t quite know
Who’s being left behind anymore
So here is a poem of appreciation
To the future doctors and teachers and shrinks of our nation
And actors and authors
And computer technicians
And judges and journalists
And pediatricians
Moms dads and professional musicians

Reading is sexy and don’t you forget it
Mediocrity consumes, but not us, we won’t let it.
We’re nerds because we strive
Moving this world forward with our inner drive

So I wrote this poem, out of my own fierce pride
For the youth, the world’s future, personified
because it’s scary, but it’s true
The future’s us, you guys

-Written for the 2009 Academy