What Is poetry?

What spoken word is -Slam

What is a word spoken on a stage
What is a line written down
What is a mind open on a page
What is a sentence beyond verbs and nouns
What. Is. Poetry?
Is it like a walk in the park where stimuli is received and it's decoded so it can be perceived? Like feet walking in cadence and your feet take you on a voyage that's maiden?
Is poetry like a fight where right jabs pierce your heart, where heavy words leave a scar, lines like punches hit you like a book but you only remember the hook? Like that initial bumping of the chest with your head turn sideways and arms go crazy like 405 freeways?
Or is poetry like the unpredictable path of a sugar crazed preschool kid looking for more candy, and when it gets that chocolate rhyme then everything is just dandy... for now
Because then its too late, that sugarholic, toy braking, 5 year old, knee-scraping, screaming, cry faking, chocolate mess, has a pencil date with fate
And those rhymes push accelerate and have no understanding of brakes, and you may try to e-brake but your mind is too curious about what it could make, so you raise the stakes, as your brain races and speeds past 208 thoughts per second and then in a second, you crash and just take a look at the wreckage
Spoken word is all that and more to me,
Because in my writing Jews were never killed and Africans were always free
Strangers are never danger but a lesson waiting to be
Paraplegics can walk and blind people can see
That's what poetry means to me
They make my happy but also make me nervous
And I think is this trash or is this really worth it?
I struggle on wether or not I'm revealing to much
To the point where it gets awkward like a stranger's hand grazing your butt
Sometimes, these poems are like stares that never end
That stare from a stranger, not a friend
That state that gets you thinking "is he looking at me?"
And you look back and see a wall behind you so you think "this guy is crazy"
See these poems are like stairs that never end
And these stairwells and obstacles blend
And make it hard to climb
So you hold onto the rail and pull for one more rhyme
See, These poems are not meant to be understood, because these poems are change and change is complicated but good
Not always as simple as getting guns out of the hood
Or occupying Wall St. for the 99%
Because to them you're all dollars and cents
And so their kind sentences are pretenses and the pretend but they're senseless
See poetry lets you go off on rants
Cause the paper always listens even when your friends can't
So stop bullying an stop fighting
And Pick up a pen and start writing