While the entire poem is usually the bomb.com, there are some lines that really grab us hook, line, and sinker. These poems have lines where the reader/listener either goes wow, laugh out loud or you can hear their heart shatter on the ground. However, there are many great spoken words out there so why not spread the love by including two articles that have heart pounding and tear-inducing poems, like “21 Spoken-Word Poems Everyone Must Hear” and “13 Poems Duets That Are Binge-Watching Worthy”.
1. RJ Walker – "Halloween"
Best Line: “Isn’t it so much scarier, when the monster comes dressed as the man."
2. Rachel Rostad – “Names”
Best Lines: “The name Rachel is a Made in America sticker slapped on a Korean Flag/ I have never had a nickname either that or only ever had nicknames/ Sometimes I wonder what my birth mom would have named me if I hadn’t been a wild animal she’d eventually have to release”
3. Javon Johnson – “Baby Brother”
Best Line: “My masculinity is a well-hung portrait in the hallway of a crumbling house/ And every time the wind blows, it’s the only thing I think to grab.”
4. Cassidy Foust – "Ghostbusters (is so gay...)"
Best Line: “For once I want to walk into a theater and see my reflection, not a row of fun-house mirrors.”
5. Mike Rosen – “When God Happens"
Best Line: “That day had no black or white because under that rubble everyone was grey. Under that rubble was no red, white, or blue. Under that rubble was just grey.”
6. T. Miller – “They Say”
Best Line: “They say what’s his name's child on Joy Road or Rosa Parks was murdered in cold blood on his front porch/ They say his/ They don’t say his name.”
7. Danez Smith – “Dinosaur in the Hood”
Best Line: "For once, nobody kills the black boy”
8. Anna Binkovitz – “The Mirror”
Best Lines: "I began to love the mirror as much as I hated the girl inside it." & "Look at my body/ Tell you haven't already picked out your least favorite part."
9. Rudy Francisco – “My Honest Poem”
Best Lines: “But I don’t allow myself to cry as often as I need too/ I have solar powered confidence/ I have a battery operated smile/ And my hobbies include editing my life story, hiding behind metaphors and trying to convince my shadow I’m someone worth following.”
10. Jess Rizkallah – “I Am But I’m Not”
Best Line: “I don’t look like most of my family/ I look like the people who hurt my family”
11. Amir Khadar – “No Fats, No Femmes, No Blacks, No Asians”
Best Line: “And again, white supremacy manifests itself in my place of refugee/ And some fool was weak enough to succumb to its pull."
12. Imani Cezanne – “Heels”
Best Line: "I wear heels because it is useless to cater to the insecure."
13. William Evans –"Sickle"
Best Line: “I stopped punishing my daughter for saying no in hopes that she never feels there’s a time she can’t say it.”
14. Denice Frohman – “Borders"
Best Lines: “The two boys behind her don’t know how to do long division but they know what a wetback is… /And they don’t know how they know, but they how to treat difference when they smell it so they say things 'Yo! Go back to your country!' as if their Irish ancestors never walked through Ellis Island."
