This past Wednesday afternoon, I attended Baruch’s Poetry Revel located on the fourteenth floor of the main building. The room was full with Baruch students and a woman stood up and introduced herself as Professor Kelly. She recited two poems and encouraged everyone to come up and share something they wrote. A hand in the back shot up and a girl, rather enthusiastic came up to the front. She was excited to share her poem as she pulled out her phone and began to recite it. It was titled, “Daddy’s Little Girl” and it starts off with her addressing her father. She asks him if he is proud of her and describes all of her accomplishments. As she goes deeper into the poem, her wording shifts and her accomplishments sound like shortcomings. “I only graduated high school” and “I dress like a disgrace.” As an audience member, I was able to notice as she lost all confidence in herself and placed it in her father. She got extremely emotional and had to pause to catch her breath. No one moved and the room was pitch silent. Her voice cracked as she begged for her father’s approval. “Daddy why aren’t you proud of me?” Her words were accompanied by small tears and I felt my heart break. I looked around. Every single person was engrossed in her poem and moved by her performance. Throughout the poem, she put her hand on her neck and/or rubbed the back of her head, both indicators of stress. She moved around a lot as I could tell it was hard for her, not only to read the poem out loud but to accept the poem as words of truth. She ended her poem “I just want you to be there for me… Daddy are you there for me?”

Everyone was shocked from the amount of emotion held in her performance. Her constant nervousness displayed through body language, cracks in her voice, and crying made the poem so powerful. Had I read this poem to myself it would not have been the same experience because it would have lacked all the emotion that came with the writer of the poem. She bowed and everyone was impressed. It took a couple of minutes for Professor Kelly to get someone else to stand up since she set a high bar.

Eventually many students came up and read. Some read poem they wrote for classes, others read famous poems like “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and “If God is Real” by Bri Mar. One boy stood up and read song lyrics that he wrote for his band. The reading was filled with so many different styles and ideas, it kept me on my feet. Since the reading was on Halloween, many students were dressed up as different characters, many unrelated to their poem. I found it ironic to see Superman stand up and read a poem about being in bed with his lover and a rock musician read a poem about hiking up a mountain. I liked that the costumes forced me to look past the individual but at the same time revealed so much about them. One boy was dressed up as a character from a TV show and wrote a poem about this character.

A poem I loved was titled “Initiation” and a young girl started off “I did not think she was dying she just had a small touch of cancer.” I loved how she read it, rushing through the medical parts and slowing down for the emotional parts. When she described the treatment, she sped through and then she paused and her voice slowed down and she spoke about love and then she sped up again as she described the medical treatments and then stop. She took a long break and finally said “In the beginning it was just a diagnosis”. Everyone sat still until Professor Kelly began clapping. Everyone clapped. Her poem was amazing. I loved this poem because of how perfectly she read it. I could tell she had read it before and was an excellent reader. Unlike the reader of “Daddy’s Little Girl,” she didn’t put so much emotion into it. I felt as though she had stepped out of the picture and read it from a more “removed” place. She had practiced reading it and her emotions weren’t as raw. I liked the professionalism but at the same time I missed the emotional aspect as well.

I enjoyed attending a poetry reading at Baruch because it was filled with a diverse variety of students just like me all reciting their poems. The environment was warm and each poem was a masterpiece within itself. I stayed for approximately fifty minutes and I really enjoyed myself. I plan on returning, hopefully next time as a reader.