Live Poetry
Isaiah Taylor
Professor Johanna Fisher
Live from the Roundhouse: Poetry Slam Final 2015
I found the live poetry reading on YouTube. The live poetry was a competition between spoken word artists and poets aged between 16 and 25 competing for the much-coveted roundhouse poetry slam title. The event takes place in a large hall and has a moderator who calls the performing poets one after another. Most of the poems are short, taking 2 to three minutes to complete.
There were poems from all three categories, sonnets, odes, and free verses. Odes and free verses were the commonest. The majority of the poems praised events and individuals and described nature emotionally and intellectually. For other poets, there was no set meter, no rhythm of words, rhyme scheme, and no particular structure.
The live reading relates to the class content. For instance, the purpose of poetry learned in class are the same ones described in real life. For instance, in the course, we learned the importance of confessional poetry to American poetry. Mostly, it has been used to air the thoughts and longtime secrets of people. Through the live poetry, I learned that poetry speaks a lot. The delivery of the message goes beyond what is covered in theory as the poets express their words using emotions and body movements.
The event had a great impact on me regarding poetry. I have really enjoyed live poetry. Through the poets’ emotions and movements, the deep message in poetry becomes easier to understand, unlike in writing poetry, where one has to read more than one time to understand the message in the poem. I have also learned that poetry can carry a deeper meaning. Most people express their thoughts through songs, not knowing that poems can equally do that.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4LjnUSu2oo. Accessed 19 Nov 2020.