
Youth Poet - Keyssh Datts
Special | 2m 26sVideo has Closed Captions
Keyssh Datts, a young poet “who’s trying to heal with words,” recites “Lucky Me.”
19-year-old Keyssh Datts says they’re “someone who’s trying to heal with words.” They note that “poetry allows you to slow people down…grab someone’s attention…and shift their consciousness in a way that can change their world.” Datts recites “Lucky Me.”
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WHYY Presents is a local public television program presented by WHYY

Youth Poet - Keyssh Datts
Special | 2m 26sVideo has Closed Captions
19-year-old Keyssh Datts says they’re “someone who’s trying to heal with words.” They note that “poetry allows you to slow people down…grab someone’s attention…and shift their consciousness in a way that can change their world.” Datts recites “Lucky Me.”
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(soft music) - My name is Keyssh.
I'm 19.
I guess like a sentence to describe me as a poet is someone who is trying to heal with words.
I think like poetry like did more for me than just like gave like me something to do or something for me to say that I have a skill set, like look at me.
What it did was like, it connected me with like mentors and people that made me feel like I was worthy.
Poetry allows you to slow people down and it allows you to grab someone's attention and shift their consciousness in a way in which can change their world.
And I think like people underestimate the fact and the power that words have.
Like it's cliché to say that words have power.
It's cliché to say like, Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.
But words have like an impact on people where it puts people in bondage if they take it in.
Poetry empowers people because it gives them the freedom to create and to basically escape their reality into a different form.
And I think that's like with all writing.
Writing allows you to create characters, to travel the world, to be somebody that you haven't, that you might wanna be, to look at different social issues and to really just look at human life and in the state of it as a whole.
Lucky me, I die before you bury me.
(indistinct) and carefully I'll think I'll marry me, broken glass up in the mirror, and I think I scared her.
I'm glad you got yourself together, but I've been hurting since I see my mom is different.
Cocaine (indistinct) thinking aiming that she might be changing.
And it's so hard.
She's still so far gone.
You can't believe what you don't conceive, 'cause see by poison in the frozen from the crescent bleed.
I always thought you had anointed and I know you see.
The sun don't shine when it's directly hitting off the trees that just arrested him a pain and it's not from a (indistinct).
Fake people always say what they pretend to be.
Junk love like Ian Jayma like that EMV.
How you Emmy but you envy you as my enemy.
Entities don't ever live it's energy.
Entities don't ever live it's energy.
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WHYY Presents is a local public television program presented by WHYY