This piece of spoken word poetry has a lot going for it. The young woman chose an appropriate subject matter for this genre of poetry - powerful, personal and meaningful. She has a very strong beginning, her word choice, rhythm, and language are all very strong. I particularly like her use of 15, "fifteen years it took me to learn a little about myself fifteen seconds it took you to look me up and down and judge me." She uses some very powerful images as well, specific and evocative. SOme of her more powerful images include, for me, brother dead in his bed and her mother's drug addiction. The strongest line in this poetry, in my opinion, is, "these scars on my arms are from their bladed tongues." I think that it is a beautiful use of figurative language - I think it is powerful and evocative. Most importantly I think that it is unique. Sh also uses repetition in a powerful way.

This poem is a bit scattered. I understand the desire to put everything on paper but I think the poem may have been more powerful if she had focused on only a few incidents and expanded on those. I think that her delivery was very strong at the beginning but seemed to become more and more rushed. Some of her lines could have been stronger if she had used pausing more effectively. I think that her rhyme scheme is a bit predictable, and a little pedestrian. I also think that she relied a bit too much on cliched phrases - "one minute in my shoes" "pain bottled up" "cry yourself to sleep" "shadow of fear."

Overall this young woman has a beautiful voice, and I admire her courageousness.