In a dimly lit room, student poet Danny Khan wears his signature black hoodie, faint music beginning to play. Diplomas and pictures of him and his family adorn the wall. Holding his poetry notebook Khan begins to reads out his spoken word poetry.
It’s part of what he calls his first season of poetry writing that he has been posting on his Instagram.
He has been posting this poetry on his instagram account this July and has just started his second season of poetry.
He thinks the poetry he’s posting is really important because of how it connects people.
“We’re so connected through social media,” Khan said. “So maybe something might pop up in your feed that really resonates with you and really connects with you. And I feel like it might not necessarily be poetry, but it’s the authenticity and the reality [in poetry] that really connects with people.”
But he’s been writing this poetry since he was much younger.
“I started writing poetry in seventh grade,” Khan said. “I was really self conscious then. So every time I would write a poem, I would think that it sucks. Then I would rip the poems out of my notebook, and throw it away.”
But Khan said his confidence as a poet has grown through support he experienced in Palo Alto High School English.
“In my sophomore year we did a poetry unit,” Khan said, “I submitted a poem and even with me not trying, she [His English teacher] said it was really good. [So] when I tried again, she said I should do this a lot more so she’s the one that really made me, take it more seriously.”
Khan said he was inspired to share his poetry by his friends’ support.
“The first thing [[that built his confidence]] was letting my friends read my poems and [[them]] telling me that they actually liked them, which I never thought they would,” Khan said. “Like when I let my friend Tevita read some of my poems in my poetry book and he really liked them.”
According to Khan, his big breakthrough came during the Paly cultural assembly last year.
“When I got the opportunity to write for that cultural assembly, I was nervous, but I feel if they’re worthy of sharing, they might as well be shared,” Khan said. “And what made me proud of myself was, because it was a cultural assembly, I had a lot of Mexican kids come up to me and hug me. [They were] saying that they really connect with the piece that I did because it had a lot of references to growing up being Mexican in the United States.”
According to Khan, poetry is a way of expressing himself.
“My meaning of poetry is just simply, like, show another way of how I’m being myself”
And he says this authenticity connects to people.
“It’s the authenticity and the reality that really connects with people, not necessarily the poetry”
To other artists, Khan recommends having more confidence in their work.
“When it comes to art, there’s no such thing as the right way,” Khan said. “If you want it to sound good, it has to sound good to you, and don’t worry about other people, because at the end of the day, competition and comparison are the things that kill art.”
Read Danny Khan’s poetry here: https://inkliterarymag.org/1350/poetry/before-the-rose-rots/
