For this assignment, I went out to see what students would present at Baruch’s Poetry Revel on October 31 in room 14-270.  I’ve been to stuff like this before; in fact, I presented a poem that I was very proud of once at my high school’s own poetry-reading event, and although I had a lot of fun, it definitely wasn’t easy to stand up in front of a whole crowd of your fellow students, teachers, and adults.  I was pretty excited to see what the students would share.  I walked into a surprisingly packed room, took a slice of pizza and some candy, and sat down, ready to hear what other people would share.

The first reader to come up wasn’t a student; it was Professor Kelly, and she kicked it off with a few poems of her own.  Dressed up in a pretty dapper outfit and with a chipper personality, I was caught off guard but intrigued. She proceeded with a poem inspired by Mary Oliver, called “Ombre”, a love poem clearly taking influence from Mary Oliver’s usage of themes related to nature in her work.  The way she spoke was controlled and calm, and there was a certain softness to it that made the words she spoke all the more effective, like she wasn’t presenting to an audience but was talking to the lover addressed in the poem.  It wasn’t difficult to hear her, however, and I never got bored to listening to her speak.  There wasn’t much in way of gesturing, but I got the sense from this poem that there was no need for grandeur.  Her gestures were simple, her posture upright, like it was just a normal conversation.  The way she often looked up and met the eyes of the audience, you wouldn’t think she was nervous, but I think the slight shakiness of her hands betrayed that.  However, it didn’t detract from her performance at all – I think it just made her seem more honest, as if she were pouring out all her emotions for everyone to see.

The second set of poems she presented were six parts, and in the spirit of Halloween, they were called “Zombie Love Poems”.  Personally, I enjoyed these the most, as I love horror and the tropes associated with the genre.  The poems were very gory, to say the least, and she even warned us about it beforehand, but I thought that the morbid tone was the best thing about it.  She went into detail about sinking her teeth into the throat of her lover, drinking their blood, and the sweetness of their flesh.  Listening to her read these poems was a little odd, in my opinion, because she read in the exact same tone of voice as she did for “Ombre”, also with very little gesturing, and while some might say it wasn’t fitting, I think the low volume of her voice contrasted with the obsessive nature of the poems in the best way possible.

There was another performer that went directly after Professor Kelly that truly grasped my attention, and left me hanging on to her every word.  It was a student named Kelani (I wish I knew the correct spelling of her name), and she shared a poem that was clearly very personal to her, called “Daddy’s Little Girl”.  This one had an emotional impact on me unlike anything else I felt about the other poems I heard.  Not to say it in a way of being critical or nitpicky, but it didn’t seem like Kelani presented or spoke in front of a crowd often.  Her voice was shaky, and she stuttered often.  She didn’t look up at the audience, as she appeared totally absorbed into trying to get the words out.  Her voice cracked, and she paused at many points to laugh awkwardly or breathe.  The poem consisted of her asking why her father was never proud of her no matter what she did.  The words just seem to pour from her, as if a dam was broken and the water was rushing out.  I felt for her deeply; I think the impact of the poem was greater because she seemed so nervous and emotional.  There were no elaborate gestures or anything like that – just a girl talking.

Listening and watching poetry differs from reading it silently to yourself in public in very important ways, to me.  For one thing, when you only read poetry, you’re only hearing the voice in your own head read it to you.  It’s a very private, intimate thing, where you’re only sharing the contents of the poem with one person and nobody else is allowed in.   For this reason, I feel as though you don’t feel as much when you read poetry.  There is no effort to present it at the best it can be.  It’s just reading words off a page, and while they can definitely strike you in certain ways, the poem doesn’t feel as real.  Listening and watching poetry, on the other hand, initiates a conversation.  While you can’t actually reply back normally, it garners a bigger reaction out of whomever is listening based on how the poem is read and on how the audience or a single listener interprets it.  The person who is telling the poem is also granted more control over how the poem is presented and the effect of it on the audience, allowing the author (presumably) to have a better chance of achieving their purpose.

What I’ve learned about the craft of writing is that there is honestly no point in holding back or ‘censoring’ – if you can even call it that – yourself.  One of the students read a poem in which she gave a VERY steamy, lewd description of sex with another person, and while it was jarring to hear, it was still amazingly well-written and fun to listen to.  You shouldn’t have to place any limits on yourself.   You shouldn’t have to conform to a specific idea of what poetry is or should be.  There are no requirements you have to fulfill in order to make a ‘good’ poem.