…. Poetry that you don’t get to read. Yet. But for having a fiction focus for my creative writing major, I sure have been writing and performing a lot of poetry.
First, I have now gone to the Portland Poetry Slam twice. Though I haven’t gotten past the first round yet, both poems I’ve performed (Nerdz with a Z and Bromance) have been received very well, and the voting has always been tight. In addition, long time veterans of the slam have made a point of coming up to me and congratulating me on my writing and performance, as well as insisting that I continue to participate. This week I’m going to have to take a rain check because I have too much to do this weekend to spend eight hours Sunday night away from sleep and schoolwork. But the week after I may return.
Next, Pacific Slam, the slam poetry club Matt and I “run”, has started up again. We had a writing workshop that only one person came to on Monday but I got to write a letter poem to Liam Aiken that I really really like. We also have our first slam/ open mic in less than two weeks, so there’s a lot still we have to do to prepare for that. We performed some of our older stuff and a duo poem at the club fair to try and entice new members, we’re constantly writing and critiquing each other’s writing, and we’re excited to see where the on campus slam community goes.
Finally, I am in an intro to writing poetry class because the regular prof, He Who Shall Not Be Named, is on sabbatical, and one of my favorite profs took over for a semester. So for THAT class, I just wrote this poem about the boy I kissed when I was five and how I stopped believing in God because he moved away. Hopefully I’ll memorize that and read it sometime to you. That’s also where I wrote the crane poems I posted on Monday, poetry class.
So although my true love is fiction writing and that will probably be my concentration for my thesis, I find myself with a new love, not greater but different, in poetry, and I couldn’t be happier.
