Prince EA (and my attempt at poetry)

     As I was browsing for modern poets on teachlivingpoets.com, I came across Richard Williams and became immediately attached to his poetry and videos (literally binge watched his videos for quite some time). 

   Born in St Louis, Missouri, Richard Williams, more commonly known by "Prince EA (EA standing for Earth)," is mainly recognized as a singer, motivational speaker, and a youtuber. Inspired by Canibus and Immortal Technique, he set out to start a small music career around 2005, and now he has over six million subscribers on YouTube. He focuses on brining a sense of unity to his followers and community, expressing a wide range of emotions with the goal to connect and evolve altogether.

    What I like the most about him is how optimistic, powerful, inspiring, and easy to understand his videos are. Although he is not completely recognized as a poet, the way his voice carries through and the arrangement of the words really speak to me like poetry, and I thought I could connect really well to his perspective and insights of our society and lives. A big theme of his videos is humans... human connection, and his videos inspire and compel to connect as we should.

"This is who we are" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbO9K0tdhuU&t=6s)

    But his body is still there
    His race, his gender
    But you say Jim died
    Because you know deep down that Jim was a lot more than his body
    He was the intelligent energy that gave life to his body
    Energy is what we are, an energy has no color
    It is not Republic or Democrat, white or black. Energy is not Christian, Muslim, or Atheist

Above is only a snippet of the entire poem, but it is enough to explain the writing style that he employs, which I appreciate. In many poems of his, he has a central theme or motif that carries through. Here, it is energy, and it is used to explain how we are all similar and connected, because energy carries through all of us. We may be politically, racially, or religiously divided, but ultimately, there is energy in all of us that makes us more meaningful than just humans.

"Can we Auto-Correct Humanity" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRl8EIhrQjQ&t=126s)

    See, technology
    Has made us more selfish and separate than ever
    Cause while it claims to connect us, connection has gotten no better
    Cause while we may have big friend lists
    So many of us are friendless
    All alone
    Cause friendships are more broken than the screens on our very phones
    We sit at home on our computers measuring self-worth by numbers of followers and likes
    Ignoring those who actually love us

I like this poem a lot because it teaches me how technology has ironically become a form of social disconnection. Evidently, his poem is very satirical, employed with a lot of humor and irony, but this poem rather stings than actually evoke laughter—it is concerning how phones have consumed our lives. He also sneaks in a bit of truth with the line "so many of us are friendless" despite the big friend lists and "friendships are more broken than the screens on our very phones."

literally us with our cell phones nowadays

Inspired by the nature of the poem and his writing style, I tried to create my own version of his poem:

    With the advent of our newest technology and media

    supposedly meant to facilitate our social connection

    rather becomes an incentive to stay locked in our rooms—

    how audacious that we call such inventions a "human revolution"

    And school, designed to help us communicate, interact, and collaborate

    but instead people stare down at their screen

    ear buds plugged in, shoulders hunched, sleep deprived

    at least the phones are becoming an replacement for caffeine.

    Look around, we live in a dystopian society,

    where fame and follower count defines our identity

    where internet beauty provokes jealousy, competition, and self-hate

    but this may all just be the start to the upcoming monstrosity

I tried to mix humor with truth that we can all visualize in our lives, because that is what Prince EA does best with his poem, "Can we Auto-Correct Humanity." Hopefully, this poem is not as bad as I think it is :)