Poetry in motion

I have often wondered about the true purpose of poetry. To entertain? To show off? To woo women? For the longest time, I thought the only reason poetry existed was to torture English students. But over time, I realized that there was some reason that poetry existed beyond filling pages with ink. I came to this conclusion after realizing that most of scripture is poetry of one kind or another. We have been told that we should read scriptures daily, so maybe it does have a particular function. I soon became very respectful of the art of poetry, but I couldn't quite put its function into words.

It was while I was watching some videos of performed poetry when I was able to figure out poetry's purpose. I came to this conclusion while watching the video above. In it, Mike Myers' character performs a bit of poetry with a bit of accompaniment. It was fun to watch, but something struck me about it. It was like when you forget something, but only the important parts, like what a particular jingle was actually selling. The poem and jazz band's contribution sounded extremely familiar, but I just couldn't put my finger on exactly why. But then it all came to me.
I did a quick Youtube search to see if I had guessed right.

And I did. This is a cover of the "Snowman Song," a song that I remembered from my childhood. An acapella group named "Inside Out" performed this particular cover and it is unlike any cover you may have heard. Instead of doing a note by note copy of the original, the singers decided to change the lyrics of well-known songs to make them about melting snowmen. From "Thriller" by Michael Jackson to "Who Let the Dogs Out" by The Baha Men, these covers were one of my favorite to listen to growing up because it was so much fun to listen to. For years, however, I could not figure out what was the first song they were covering (from about 0:10 to 0:35). 

It wasn't until I watched the Mike Myers video that I had finally found out what they were covering. They were doing a throwback to this movie! It took me almost 14 years to figure it out! It was when I figured this out that I figured out what poetry's true purpose is: efficient connection. I can think of no quicker way to connect with someone with the written word than through poetry. Sure, you could connect with someone with a book or play, but poetry cuts right to the bone. 

I wouldn't have looked twice at Mike Myers' performance if I hadn't had an earlier connection to it, but the fact that I did made me listen and it ended up filling a fourteen-year-old hole that I had. Poetry does that: connect us all together in one way or another in the most effective way possible. That is why love songs and break-up songs are so popular because it connects so many people together, and you can only do that through poetry.