Overview
During the production of Welcome, Taproot had given producer Toby Wright roughly 40 complete songs to which he said were not up to their potential and forced them to start from scratch. However, "Poem" was actually written long before the band started working with Wright. Guitarist Mike DeWolf elaborated:
- "That's actually the first song we wrote for the album. . . We played it at the 2001 Ozzfest and there was a big reaction. The kids went nuts for it even more than to our other songs that they'd heard a million times before. In production we changed little things here and there to make it stronger, but it's basically the same song."
"Poem" was performed on the December 13, 2002 edition of Last Call with Carson Daly. The band was late due to weather troubles in Chicago but treated the audience to a half-hour set. A live version of the song was included on the Music as a Weapon II album in 2004. "Poem" was also featured on the soundtracks for both MVP Baseball 2003 and True Crime: Streets of L.A.
The popular single begins with a few solo guitar chords before breaking into a heavy introduction. The singing style continuously shifts back and forth between harsh and clean vocals, and its chorus lyrics reference the instructions seen on fire alarms ("In case of fire, break the glass and move on into your own"). The majority of lyrics describe an endurance of suffering and acquiring hope through a song or "poem."
Read more about this topic: Poem (song)