Cover art for Poem of Anxiety 56 by Dalmo Mendonça

Poem of Anxiety 56

Apr. 18, 20121 viewer

Poem of Anxiety 56 Lyrics

I wanna forego tradition,
But I wanna be taken serious
In quarters where knowledge matters,
Where beats and sounds can be scattered,
Where long lines that don't rhyme are better,
Where Whitman is king and everyone wants to be Eliot,
Where rhymes are the past's, structure is Poe's,
Where poems aren't raps that talk about hoes,
Where poets dream of being called post-mortem,
Where the nicest compliment is being post-modern,
Where asyndetonic plethoras are more than laundry lists,
Where they wait until you die and crown you king of the beats.
Where does this anxiety leave the poet?

I want to be fresh, dope, street-refined,
Free from this burden of creating an urn.
Maybe I misspelled it in the application,
But I'm not here to be a potter.

When you read his words on a page,
you know it's cummings.
You don't even have to touch the book;
Touch your own bootsoles and feel one of the roughs.
But what about me? Well I want the dead poets to come
off in the shower.

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

To learn more, check out our transcription guide or visit our transcribers forum

About

Genius Annotation

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

Credits
Release Date
April 18, 2012
Tags
Comments