If We Could See the Context of Our Universe

I’ve never really liked poetry, but this is different.  I love this.  This is spoken word.  

My friends are in the poetry forum at my college and they held an open mic night a while ago.  I went because they asked me to, thinking I would hate it the whole time but not wanting to disappoint.  I sat in the second row because being in front seemed like too much pressure.  What if I smiled when I should have frowned? Snapped when I should have shouted? Laughed when I should have cried?

My friend came up to me before the first poet.  She was nervous to say her own poem, but I told her to, we all wanted to hear it.  She said it was sadder than usual but I had never heard any of her poems so I told her to go for it knowing whatever it was she would kill it.  What a girl.  Of course, everyone there was amazing, but she, she was a shooting star on a pitch black night.  She read a poem she wrote about her dad.  Not one of those happiest little elf things where her dad plays a game with her and then takes her to ice cream whether she wins or loses.  No.  She wasn’t that lucky.  I listened to her read and I thought to myself, “Wow.  So this is poetry”.  

I listened to all of the other performers and wanted to be them.  To have something to say that everyone wanted to hear because it was that important.  

It might not be that I hated poetry like I thought.  I was just never introduced to it in the right way.  I went back to my dorm and looked up other spoken word poets.  I read poetry I found online and in books and asked my friends for their favorite poems.  I wrote a poem in the shower and sat down to type it out the second my hair was brushed and my towel hung.  I’d like to say that I put pen to paper but in this day in age it would just be a lie.  I emailed a poet that I really liked and listened to him talk at a ceremony at my school he just happened to be speaking at. And tonight I watched a TED talk just because.  I  never knew I could like it so much, but I’m glad I found out.  

This post is more of a thank you than anything else.  Thank you to the poetry forum.  You guys helped me see that there is more to poetry than just analyzing them for AP exams and English tests.  I never liked analyzing the slavery-representing lobsters, but maybe now it seems okay.