In order for us to continue working with poetry without causing mutinies, Mr. Burge has been showing us slam poetry. We watched one from Saul Williams about drugs and imprisonment and while it was a really cool poem, It didn't really elicit an emotional response from me, besides being mildly unsettled.
it got me wondering if there was slam poetry that wasn't about such negative things. I love Anis Mojgani's "Direct Orders" and "Love Poem For His Wife", because they are about being happy and fulfilled, but pretty much every other slam poem I've seen in class is so unhappy and negative in its tone. Depression and substance abuse and OCD and other things I'm not real keen to read about/listen to. Where is the slam poetry about that first date that didn't end horribly? Where is the slam poetry about going to the library? About making good choices?
Why doesn't that elicit an emotional response? Why doesn't a poem about life and happiness get a response the way a poem about death and sadness does? Are we so desperate for catharsis that we automatically assume that if it's dark and unhappy it's good?
I want to hear poetry that isn't about violence and drugs. I want to hear happiness and joy. I want to learn things about the human condition that leave me hopeful and with a light heart, not things that leave me with my skin crawling, my heart heavy, and a vague ominous feeling. I want to hear that there is hope, because there is always hope. Always.
"The inside might be as dark as night, but at the end of the tunnel there's a light." - Starlight Express
-D.
No comments:
Post a Comment