Revelations

I enjoyed today's Poetry Slam in English 495. I am thoroughly impressed by my classmates' skills with words. We found out that many of us regularly practice the craft of writing poetry, and even those who proclaimed to be amateur showed the most raw talent.

I am glad that the class as a whole took the assignment very seriously and found places within themselves to produce something more than shallow rhyme and rhythm. Jedi Jordan even brought a guitar to sing his lyrical parody poem as a song.

Lauren Bristol's "She Was There" poignantly struck my heart. The poem itself almost reads like a short story, were it not for the breaking off of phrases and the rhythmic meter. In her reading, I felt the most emotion as she read these lines:

          Tick.

          Tock.

          It was almost as if death was tapping his toe, saying

          I

          Am

          Wai-

          Ting.

          If you’re going to be here, hovering over her every breath,

          Don’t be a tool about it.

Maybe it's because this was literally me two months ago in the weeks before my father passed away. Ms. Bristol's choice to break syllables into their own lines to reflect the ticking of a clock was a very strong choice; it emphasizes the helpless battle to stop time, stop Death itself.

And, Lauren, girl, I feel you. Death's a douche.

I made the choice to not give commentary during the reading on the two poems I wrote. I feel like a well-written poem needs no explanation or should leave room enough for the reader to make the poem their own. I really hope that my words spoke for themselves.