The Internet: Bringing you things you never knew you would love.

One of the things that I most often read on the internet is the phrase "I didn't know I needed this in my life until just now." What an interesting sentence that is!

That's what the internet does for us in this day and age. We find ourselves going out and looking at things and ending up in strange places that we never thought we would end up in. Sometimes we find new hobbies that we are dying to try out. Sometimes we find something hilarious that we will share with our friends. Sometimes we find something beautiful that needs to be shared.

Just in the last two weeks I was introduced to several new games that I want to try, the whole lore system of Warhammer 40,000 which is phenomenal, several books that I want to read, a new web series that I want to watch, a web tool that helps me do assigned readings faster, and several more websites.

So in this discussion of the internet and poetry, and in keeping with my theme, I want to share a piece of poetry that I found in a very unusual way. Not in a book, not even on a poetry website. In fact, I wasn't searching for poetry at all.


It is called Go Big, Young Friends. (I warn you now: It sounds like a speech, but it is in fact a poem, as you'll see later on. Additionally, I must caution about Adult Language in the poem. If that offends you, please do not listen. Please listen to this instead: Go Robo. It is a similar message, but is even more of a performance piece than a poem.)

How did I find this poem? I was, and still am, a big fan of Epic Rap Battles of History. I found that I was particularly entranced by the video Dr. Seuss vs. William Shakespeare. I found out that the rapper playing William Shakespeare was a young jewish rapper named George Watsky.

I spent over an hour looking through his various rap music videos and finding that I greatly enjoyed them, since it was well-written and the opposite of thuggish. It was nerdy and heartfelt and I felt a connection to it in a way that I couldn't connect with other rap music.

Eventually, I wound my way down to his poetry. Most of it was given as half poems, half performance pieces, which I think is why I liked them so much.

This is one of the advantages of the internet. Without it, how would I have ever heard about George Watsky and his talents?

How would many of us ever stumble upon the things we enjoy so much?

The internet connects us in ways that we've never been connected before, and opens us up to opportunities we never had.