LJ Idol Week 4 - “Nobody can ride your back if your back's not bent”
As a rule, I didn’t like poetry. My experience with poetry throughout elementary/middle/high school consisted mostly of Shel Silverstein (which I do still enjoy) and Shakespeare’s sonnets (though I also remember reading Porphyria’s Lover and Ode to a Nightingale). I never went through that angsty, write-all-the-poetry phase that a lot of young writers talk about. In college, I can remember reading a sonnet about freedom, which struck me as ironic, but dreaded poetry units the way a fat kid dreads that day in PE where they have to step on the scale. Which is a minor problem for an English major. It just didn’t speak to me. I would never read it and get goosebumps or feel that rush of emotion I could get from a good novel or short story or, on some occasions, made for TV movies and hallmark commercials. It was like poetry was part of some super secret club with its super secret language that I could never be a part of. And it made me feel stupid. To me, a red wagon is just a red wagon.
I was perusing Facebook one day and noticed one of my friends had posted a video. I’m usually more of a funny cat video person than an every-female-should-see-this video person, but I was bored and alone in the house, so I clicked on it. And I was moved to tears. The beginning of the video told me that it was from the 2002 National Poetry Slam. Now, there are people who cannonball straight into a pool. Or dive off the edge of a cliff into a river. Or jump off the rope swing right out there into the deep end of the lake. I am not one of those people. I enter on the shallow end. At the shore. And slowly. Like slooooooooowly. And that’s pretty much how I approach just about everything. I had never before that moment heard of spoken word poetry or slam poetry, but I had to have more. Right now more.
I started out looking at any video featuring a white female. Because I’m a white female and that’s obviously the only type of spoken word that will speak to me. But I kept seeing this Taylor Mali guy on the sidebar. And one of his poems was “What Teachers Make.” And I wanted to be a teacher, so this one would probably be okay, right? Right. Oh my God right. And so I clicked on more white males. Because they were still white and I couldn’t imagine any other race could possibly speak to me.
It took me a while (okay, maybe an hour and a half) to start getting what I would call adventurous. And then I found out that Def Poetry Jam was on HBOGo and oh man did I go nuts! And there was some of it that did not speak to me. There were too many curse words or they spoke with great feeling and righteousness about politics or drug wars or war in general (and I, surprising to me, found this with all races and genders of spoken word (slam?) poets). But a lot (most) of it did speak to me. It moved me like I hadn’t been moved before or since. And I found myself identifying with African American women and Asian males and a lesbian duo and a group that looked kind of like Boyz 2 Men but not. Which I never ever thought was possible. My heart felt too full to speak. Too full of happiness. Of sadness. Of hope. Despair. Love. Understanding. Everything. I was too full of everything. And when my (now ex, though not because of this incident) husband came home from work and I made him watch some of my favorites and he said, “Uh-huh. So what else did you do today?” I almost came unglued. How could he possibly not understand the emotional roller coaster I had been on?
I guess some people just don’t like poetry.
A/N: I still do not have the love and appreciation for written poetry that I feel like I should. But goodness gracious I love me some spoken word. Here's links to some of my favorites if you've got the time and/or inclination:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wJl37N9C0 - The video that started it all - Katie Makkai - Pretty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGKm201n-U4 - Taylor Mali - What Teachers Make
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgQLEfSi9ys - Gina Loring - You Move Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuAbGJBvIVY - Sarah Kay - Hands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chEpx0x2PBE - Shane Hawley - Love You (In Restaurants is also really good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrUn8JRNNZ4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcmqYCTBDoU - Shihan - Sick and Tired
Please if you know of any that you would recommend, please let me know.
And, as always, I love me some concrit! ^_^