Some members of the Missouri Tiger basketball team are finding a creative way to express themselves off the court.

Missouri guards Zaire Taylor and Kim English have seen a lot in their lives.

Taylor is the first New Yorker to play for Mizzou since the great Derrick Chievous and they both have hidden talents and a way with words.

Taylor makes the difficult look easy and has a suave style. He is unquestionably smooth.

"When you start playing collegiate basketball smooth isn't always going to cut it. It's physical, especially in the Big 12," Taylor said.

When he is not bouncing a ball, Taylor is dribbling words through his head.

Taylor is a poet.

"You should see how much happier my life be. It's like I was blind and now I see. Nine is going fine, but I found me a dime and she's that from head to toe from her soul to her mind," said Taylor.

Taylor does not name his poems and they are usually about life and relationships.

"I looked into my heart and realized it was vacant, realized I needed love so I went out and chased it.

He's made up about 20 or 30 poems, but you won't find them on paper. He keeps them in his head.

"Instead of listening to songs I make my own song, my own poem. I say it enough times I can say it two times and remember the whole thing," said Taylor.

This poet is also a teacher.

Taylor is taking English under his wordsmith wing.

"He went to an open mic that I performed at and it just impressed him," said Taylor.

"I watched him. He did great and I figured I could do it, too. The ladies liked it so I just tried it and it worked pretty well," English said.

"He brought his own poetry book and he started writing poems and after a day he had three or four poems," said Taylor.

In between hoops and homework English says he hammers out three poems a week.

"Everybody that knows him has heard his poems. He's not shy. He'll let the world hear them once he wrote those poems," said Taylor.

English says he takes coaching from more places than just the basketball court.

"I like guys like Socrates and things like that. I take what they say and I put a little urban twist to it I guess. It's better to see a lesson than be a lesson. That's one of my good ones," English said.

A poet is born, not made. "I'm like Jordan. Anytime that I'm recording. If I write my wrongs than it wouldn't be right. If I right my wrongs than it wouldn't be life," Taylor said.

Taylor says his long term goal is to coach on the college level. But first he wants to get the Tigers into the NCAA tournament.