Anis Mojgani's "My library has 17 books"

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  • čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
  • Anis Mojgani, Def Poet, won back-to-back titles at the National Individual Poetry Slam in 2005 and 2006, and won first place at the 2007 World Cup Poetry Slam held in Bobigny, France. He performs here, as the featured poet at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City, performing "my library has 17 books".

Komentáře • 49

  • @lizehhh
    @lizehhh Před 11 lety +12

    Library is a place to store knowledge, usually in the form of books. He himself is the library, the 17 books are things he has learned - each a separate lesson, each symbolized by a separate book.

  • @Annarocks43
    @Annarocks43 Před 11 lety +6

    "I have carved shelves out of my heart to try and bring an order to things, all it did was make space." I just really, really love that. So much.

  • @NotANoob27x7
    @NotANoob27x7 Před 10 lety +22

    He has such a handsome voice

  • @RhymingMime
    @RhymingMime Před 12 lety +4

    This poem is beyond me in that exciting way where you want to know and you dont know if you can know but you just stare into the ideas grinning and grinning watching them go by too fast to seep into your brain but they still seep into your soul.

  • @MCNDanger
    @MCNDanger Před 11 lety +3

    He is talking about different things that have molded him into who he is. Love, heartbreak, problems and answers, victories and failures, judgement, pride, shame, a desire for freedom, hip hop, breakdancing, guitar, the power of hindsight and knowledge gleaned from past experience, and ultimately, how through everything his soul keeps shining. That is the general message. I originally wanted to explain each number to you but there is a character limit ):

  • @aiamare2
    @aiamare2 Před 10 lety +7

    He has such a lovely voice. I wonder if he reads for audiobooks - that would be amazing.

    • @leemurray9330
      @leemurray9330 Před 9 lety

      I don't know if my heart could take the tension of a whole audiobook

  • @brayam3747
    @brayam3747 Před 12 lety +1

    this poem verbalizes the sounds made by the wind as it cuts through the trees that grow out of my head

  • @ChiefKrikor
    @ChiefKrikor Před 11 lety +1

    T. S. Eliot put it well when he said in The Use of Poetry and The Use of Criticism that the prose sense of a poem is chiefly useful in keeping the reader's mind "diverted and quiet, while the poem does its work upon him." Eliot went on to liken the meaning of a poem to the bit of meat a burglar brings along to throw to the family dog. What is the work of a poem? To touch us, to stir us, to make us glad, and possibly even to tell us something.
    X. J. Kennedy

  • @RoRoRoYo_Boat
    @RoRoRoYo_Boat Před 8 lety +3

    Why is everyone saying he missed 11? It's at 2:11… 11: there is so much cedar wood in my belly, there is so much sawdust collected on the floor of my love that I have been sweeping it up for so many days now but each day I sweep up a little more…one day that floor will be clean

  • @transformersloverjon
    @transformersloverjon Před 11 lety

    Damn, I could listen to him talk all day.

  • @GShoe32
    @GShoe32 Před 11 lety +3

    "so cold, he dropped the D and added an extra O" haha that just clicked for me

  • @gus9241
    @gus9241 Před 11 lety

    Your comment is poetry in itself, and it describes perfectly what I felt while watching this. amazing.

  • @SemiAmazingAtheist
    @SemiAmazingAtheist Před 12 lety

    This poem is superb.
    The god of thunder/fall every time line gave me fucking goosebumps man.
    Furniture staring line as well.

  • @lizehhh
    @lizehhh Před 11 lety

    I was referring to the "books" in the title. Like I was trying to explain, the "books" are figurative.

  • @SVDurLIFE
    @SVDurLIFE Před 10 lety +3

    I like that porcelain plate line. That was very clean.

    • @nikkapillarify
      @nikkapillarify Před 10 lety

      Can you explain that to me actually, I'm not really sure I get it. "I placed two pancakes upon two plates when I pushed them back and forth the porcelain breaks"?

    • @nikkapillarify
      @nikkapillarify Před 10 lety

      nikkapillarify
      **cut them

    • @SVDurLIFE
      @SVDurLIFE Před 10 lety +1

      nikkapillarify hip hop is just a bunch of rhyme schemes and plays on words. which is what he did. poetry is always subjective btw. so it can mean that to me but might mean something to you.

    • @MCNDanger
      @MCNDanger Před 9 lety +3

      nikkapillarify it's referring to turntables used by DJ's. Cutting is one of the techniques they use. The pancakes are the records being spun

    • @SVDurLIFE
      @SVDurLIFE Před 9 lety +1

      never new that^^^

  • @angelpunch0
    @angelpunch0 Před 10 lety +6

    How do people even do this without being gods

  • @Sensation453
    @Sensation453 Před 11 lety

    i believe it was a punchline addressing how people always say, "what rhymes with elbow/orange" things of that nature...

  • @fashigading07
    @fashigading07 Před 11 lety +1

    He just mentioned 16 books. Though he did well. And he missed
    11
    the whistle of the train train is a hospital
    it is ebbs with the sounds of dying and fixing
    it turns every wheel inside of me
    into a bonnet
    turns every wheel into splinters
    Good execution though! :D

  • @nandinivarmaaa
    @nandinivarmaaa Před 10 lety

    Aniiiiisssssss!!!!!!

  • @sonnetphelps683
    @sonnetphelps683 Před 6 lety

    "there is so much sawdust collected on the floor of my love."

  • @strawberriez0
    @strawberriez0 Před 11 lety

    Maybe Anis's 17th book is himself? Lovin' this poem by the way :D

  • @davydawgdawg
    @davydawgdawg Před 10 lety +3

    what did it mean?

  • @petersingh330
    @petersingh330 Před 11 lety

    He reminds me of Keegan-Micheal Key!

  • @iRickiCharlie666
    @iRickiCharlie666 Před 11 lety

    he did say 11

  • @watchmegirly
    @watchmegirly Před 11 lety

    I really like this poem he did here, but is there anyone who would kindly explain to me what he was trying to say through this?

    • @eloyADAN
      @eloyADAN Před 8 lety

      it's somewhat ontological (talking about our relationship to objects) and kind of to others. you'd have to kinda look at each line (and even break the lines apart) and make connections to other parts in the poem. I try to do this in just experiencing the poem, but he goes rrrrreally fast.

  • @megajoeify
    @megajoeify Před 8 lety

    You really can't take this piece at face value. The lighthearted way that he reads it here is very deceptive to the actual nature of the piece

  • @LookatthoseSocks
    @LookatthoseSocks Před 11 lety +1

    could you be more clear?

  • @SemiAmazingAtheist
    @SemiAmazingAtheist Před 11 lety

    17, but he doesn't say the number before saying his seventeenth reason in this performance.

  • @RicePudden
    @RicePudden Před 12 lety

  • @rasberries566
    @rasberries566 Před 11 lety

    I know what you mean.

  • @FakeFlourescentSkies
    @FakeFlourescentSkies Před 11 lety

    you know how rappers force rhymes with their exaggerated accents

  • @Imnotthedragon
    @Imnotthedragon Před 12 lety

    His library has sixteen books?

  • @mspinkstar1234
    @mspinkstar1234 Před 11 lety +1

    His mind is too far away from the galaxy and too deep that our average minds can't understand his ideas.

  • @Johnny.bar99
    @Johnny.bar99 Před 11 lety

    too many abstractions! but i love it tho!

  • @DaBullKill
    @DaBullKill Před 11 lety

    2:10
    YOU missed 11.

  • @Orionsbelt92
    @Orionsbelt92 Před 11 lety +2

    None of the 17 things he described were books...

  • @Orionsbelt92
    @Orionsbelt92 Před 11 lety

    ...none were books

  • @SILVERMERLIN101
    @SILVERMERLIN101 Před 11 lety +2

    what the fuck is he talking about.

  • @iouaname673
    @iouaname673 Před 12 lety

    He is so clearly talented, but I can't connect with him. I wonder why

  • @ilyem999
    @ilyem999 Před 11 lety

    What an unfortunate name...

    • @razanb4163
      @razanb4163 Před 5 lety +1

      The Soft Glow of Brightly Burning Hope sorry not everyone is white