Poetry Slam Journal

Tonight I went to the semifinals of the SlamMN! competition at Kiearan's Irish Pub. It was pretty interesting; I've definitely never been to any event like it in my life. Right when Nick and I walked in, Neil Hilborn greeted us. That was actually pretty sweet, because he's a poet that has repeatedly come up in class and we've watched a fair bit of his material on Youtube. In fact, he performed a poem that we had already seen in class - "The Future."  I really wanted to see him perform "O.C.D.," the very sad one about the girl. I'm actually not a huge fan of  "The Future," but it was still really cool to see him do it. My favorite part about this poem is that it takes something that everybody thinks is a huge disability and problem, and turns it into a positive thing. Hilborn repeatedly refers to his condition as a "superpower," which is a really fun and positive outlook on things. He directly addresses the fact that doctors call it a disability, while he just embraces it. Towards the end, he really focuses in on the idea that his condition is what makes him human, and it's what reminds him every day that he's alive. I'll paraphrase one brief passage from "The Future": "I don't kill myself when I'm on one of my highs because I feel like a superhero. I don't kill myself when I'm in one of my lows because the sadness is what reminds me I'm alive." I love that idea. I thought it was really powerful, and while I'll never be able to understand what it's like to have the "disorders" that he has, he certainly makes me sympathize with his situation.

There were essentially three themes that were really prominent in tonight's poems: rape, homosexuality, and feminism. That's pretty much what I was expecting as I walked in, so no surprises there. On the car ride home I reflected on why these topics are so popular at an event like this. I came to the conclusion that this setting, with a group of people who are all very supportive and understanding of the struggles associated with certain topics, was a really comfortable place for the poets to open up about very sensitive topics. So that must be why they tend to speak about these things. To me, that made total sense and I totally supported it. However, there was one thing that really bugged me about the event, and that's when it came to judging. The judges were hugely biased towards those that tackled these very sensitive topics. My favorite poem of the night was about not becoming another cookie cutter money machine, and having aspirations, and just doing your own thing. I thought it was a fantastic poem. However, while one mediocre poem about rape received scores of 9.0 across the board, this really well written and powerful poem received scores in the 6-7 range. I came to the conclusion that the judging was biased in a way that I didn't agree with. But that's life, eh? Overall, I had a good time at the event simply because it was a completely new experience for me and I always like trying new things.

Final Project Proposal (Christian Koch and Nick Ozolins)

We're going to do a collab final project. We will be compiling poetry from everyone in the class through some kind of online thing such as Google docs, and then sorting through it to find common themes or ideas. Then we will link parts of the poems using these themes to form a new class poem with some kind of coherent story. We will also add in new lines to help smooth the transitions. Then, we will take this poem and use it to create a video that will both provide a visual aid for the reading of the poems but also try to work with the themes, etc. in the poems. The video could be a great way to show the transitions between each classmate's work and what kind of poem it is. We think it will be a great way to combine the work of the class to have something that we were all a part of. Of course, for the project to succeed, having cooperation with collecting people's poems will be critical so we will get started on that ASAP.

Project proposal

Initially I was really interested in a spoken word event for my final project. However, I'm definitely having second thoughts at this point. I'm just not sure that's where I want to go with this. The chapbook was the main option for people and I think that's good, but it's also pretty standard. I would like to do something a little different, which is why I was pulled to the spoken word event. I did have a lot of fun making my video poem. If I could make a video poem, similar to the last project, work for my final project, I think I'd be pretty enthusiastic about that.

The shadow poem

Ask to see it if you need proof I wrote it, I don't feel like putting it here.

video poem choice

This poem is dedicated
To all the people out there writing poetry
To all the teachers that kept me in the game when I didn't wanna write anymore
Shouts out to Biggie. The greatest.

Ha. You already know the line -

It's all good baby bay-bayyyy.

It was all a dream - I used to sit and munch on ice cream
At the countertop downin' pudding cups and Lean Cuisines
.....I wanna sit back, relax
Roll a couple up and forget all of the facts
......Reminisce about the carefree days of junior high
All matter aside, just chilling with the illest guys
Way back when I had the red and black lumber jack
And the hat to match
Ay yo Mr. Bahr! Du-har, du-har
Ya never thought that my ass would make it this far
Call the daily grind that rapid eye movement
Finding deeper peace takes a little self improvement
Fools saying "step back, find a greater force" well
I say we step forward, rhyme until we're hoarse
Quit trying to find the truth, take the time to look around
Hit the ground, skip town, flip a frown, slow it down
Food for thought, why don't you chew instead of rushin
If you're chokin on my words then you should ask in the discussion.

Video POD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyhKHO1CgTU

Louis Jenkins

My favorite poem by Louis Jenkins was "Afterlife." I thought it was a really witty and interesting take on a pretty huge topic. I bet if I had a nickel for every poet that's tried to tackle "life" or even more specifically "looking back on life" I'd... have a fair amount of nickels. I've read some pretty boring poems on this subject, too; yet when I read Jenkins' "Afterlife" I found myself chuckling at the humor and nodding along the way as he made pretty profound statements about how humans reflect on life.

"Most of the time I was confused… and there was way too much sex and violence."
"Violence anyway," he says.

I find this hilarious. In addition, look at this line, one of the poem's speakers' take on life:

"The whole thing lacked subtlety."

I also found this amusing. I won't try to pick apart the language, but I love this way of pretty accurately describing life using a phrase we hear a lot when referring to film. "Subtlety" is such a sought after quality of film - how does this word feel when we apply it to real life? I don't know. I think it's kind of a deep thing to think about.

This quality of Jenkins' writing that I liked - that is, combining wit and humor with profound statements about the human condition - turned out to pop up elsewhere in his poetry (go figure!). Here's a short poem entitled "Big Brown Pills:"

~~~
I believe in the big brown pills, they lower cholesterol and
improve digestion. They help prevent cancer and build
brain cells. Plus they just make you feel better overall. I
believe in coffee and beet greens and fish oil, of course,
and red wine, in moderation, and cinnamon. Green tea is
good and black tea, ginseng. I eat my broccoli. Nuts are
very good and dark chocolate, has to be dark, not milk
chocolate. Tomatoes. But I think the big brown pills really

help. I used to believe in the little yellow pills but now I
believe in the big brown pills. I believe that they are much
more effective. I still take the little yellow ones, but I really
believe in the big brown ones.
~~~

This poem was a little less heavy than "Afterlife" simply because it didn't tackle such a profound topic. Yet it still retains that quality that I enjoyed. It's goofy. The way Jenkins writes about people's weird ideas about nutrition is pretty funny. Then he looks at a sort of deeper idea - modern society's blind faith in prescription meds and their magic-like benefits. Another poet might have written a really dreary rant about how Americans are constantly taking pills and such. Instead, Jenkins writes about the "big brown pills" in a way that not only is funny but also highlights the point he's trying to make, that is the borderline-brainwashed nature of the pill-taker.