Nov 08 2009
Suprise, suprise
Poetry has always been a headache for me. I had long branded myself as someone who don’t understand poetry and tried my best to avoid any poetry related activities. Therefore I wasn’t excited about attending the Common Event-Meet the Artists, Poetry Writers Reading, when I first arrived at the Macaulay building.
Since the event would take place after a long day of school, I expected to fall asleep. Since fancy crackers and 5 different kinds of cheese were served as snacks, I expected the poems to be pretentiously “high class”. To my surprise, there was an abundance of cursing words coming out of the poets’ mouths, from their poetry readings as well as other parts of their speech. And the passionate reading not only kept me awake, but also gave me a new perspective to look at poetry and their creators.
The dictionary description of “poet” is “ a person who writes poems.” I choose to call the speakers creators rather than poets because I feel that they are much more than what the dictionary describes. They are storytellers who expand my vision of this world, as Khadijiah Queen reads a poem about a woman who had her nipple bitten off by a man but still loves him. They are conjurers of emotions who stirred up sentiments in me that I didn’t know existed, as Amaal “Versiz” May recites his several poems about war and its cruelties. They are braves who reveals their most painful memories who cautions me about making decisions in life, as Natalie Niaz shares a poem description her first Halloween out of her reservation.
After the powerful deliveries of the poems, the creators showed their sense of humor, despite the ability to produce poems that inspire anger and sadness, as they voiced their common desire for writers to get extra deduction at liquor stores. With components of both fun and seriousness, the common event was a great experience.
I think that its a flaw in our education system to teach poetry as something that is clear cut, limited, and not fun. After stepping out into the real world, everyone I know seems to have this epiphany that poetry is actually about fun, free flow of ideas, opinions, and the ability to express oneself through whatever means possible.
Like in this case – if it takes cursing, sexuality, and vulgarity to say what you truly intend to say, then that’s what it should take.
However, I would probably be as shocked as you were – Macaulay Officials invited someone to say bad words and inappropriate things? Oh, the horror!
But in the end I think there is much more than that. Words convey meaning, and behind every word there is a hidden deeper meaning.
I could imagine how the speakers looked based on the way you describe their speaking. I feel like people are becoming more and more comfortable with expressing their personal business in a descriptive manner. I guess this is a change for poets as you say they are transitioning into a different form on expression.