A Reflection on Slam Poetry

I've been in a bit of a slam poetry phase lately. It started a while back when a friend of mine posted a poem by Shane Koyczan on Facebook (the second picture in this post is of him). I had only heard one of his poems, The Crickets Have Arthritis, up until that point, and it was then, as I listened to this other, new-to-me poem, that I realized he was not only the performer of that poem, but the poet. So I explored his other poems up until the point of disappointment when I realized he hasn't written hundreds.

So I moved on to other slam poets. There are a lot of them on YouTube, playlists full of poems performed by various poets. Some, I admit, I skip. Maybe the performer isn't doing a good job, or maybe the topic is not one I enjoy, or maybe the poem itself just isn't all that. It's not like I have to listen to every poem on the Internet, and listening to them is definitely not an assignment.

It's from this phase that Cool came. It was my first attempt at a spoken-word poem. It's not up to par with the stuff I've been listening to and loving, but it's a start. I don't know that I even want to be a slam poet. I just love listening, and listening sometimes makes a person want to give it a try. The poems got me thinking about this past summer, when my ex kept telling me how cool he thought I was, and the use of the term in reference to myself was new to me.

As much as I'm enjoying these slam poets, it is true that these poems are, generally speaking, a slam of some sort. The poets are trying to take down some idea they have seen in their lives or in society. Maybe that's why I love Shane Koyczan the best. True, he was my first (geez, that makes it sound like I slept with him. That definitely did not happen. I've never been near the guy), but he is also a slam poet--or spoken-word poet, as he puts it--who focuses on the good. He acknowledges the bad, but every time I finish listening to one of his poems, I feel uplifted and positive, and most of all, I feel empowered.

I just looked it up, for the sake of clarification and so that I don't sound stupid: Spoken-word poetry is poetry that is meant to be read, recited, or performed aloud. Slam poetry is when that poetry is presented in a competition, or "poetry slam" (I knew that term, don't worry. I'm not completely ignorant). Now that we are all enlightened as to terminology, I'll continue.

Way back in the 7th grade, I remember my teacher telling us about poetry slams. I'm now wondering if she had never been to one. She told us that poetry was performed and people snap instead of clap at the end. That's all she said. She didn't say a thing about how the poetry is performed or what type of poetry is generally part of a poetry slam. Slam poems are definitely not poems like my 7th grade poem about a spider who makes a web and, instead of admiring the beauty of the web, people (the spider's critics) run away. No, there was no political, philosophical, or social agenda behind the poem, though the analogy is intriguing, now that I think about it. Anyway, I'm learning a lot more about spoken-word poetry now than I did back in the 7th grade.

I've always enjoyed poetry to some extent, but I've never gone through a poetry phase wherein I read as much poetry as I've been listening to lately. For that reason, I have a feeling this spoken-word stuff hits a little closer to home for me. Either that, or it feeds my solitaire addiction. And for that reason (the hitting close to home bit, not the solitaire), I would like to learn. I want to give it a try. Okay, I already did give it a try, but I mean that I want to give it more of a try. Not so I can become a spoken-word poet, but so I can experience it from the other side, writer instead of audience. Thankfully, I'm taking an advanced poetry course this semester, so I will be focusing on poetry a bit more. The downside is that I'm pretty sure we aren't going to be studying spoken-word poetry, so I'll have to tutor myself. Sigh.

One thing I would like to say is that a lot of slam poems are not happy poems. They make you question, they pull you into their world, and suddenly you find yourself wondering, "Am I being used by the person who says they love me?" even though you know they think you are the greatest thing in the history of ever. Bad side effect. I don't like it. I just have to remind myself that their life is not my life and yeah right the same exact things are going to happen.

You really should check out Shane Koyczan, though. The guy is incredible. I mean, he gave a TED Talk, for crying out loud. So did Sarah Kay (the first picture in this post is of her), another great spoken-word poet. Not sure if any other spoken-word poets have. There are a lot of TED Talks out there, after all.