Eward2's Blog

While leaving my Drawing class the other day with my roommate, our friends asked us if we wanted to join them at the Lit House to see a poetry reading. Having nothing to do, we agreed to accompany them. We did not know what to expect or who was even presenting their poetry to us. We sat down and a woman stepped up to the podium and began telling us stories about her life and the poetry the came out of it. Patricia Smith, it turns out, was reading to us, a Four Time National Slam Poetry Champion. I later learned the slam poetry was a competition that she competed in multiple times. Her words captivated me and even gave me chills. She spoke about a class that she taught poetry to and the struggles they’d been through living where they did. The poems were more like stories and every word she said had meaning. This was not an ordinary poetry readings, though I know little of how they usually go. The emotion the poet used in her voice as she spoke was very powerful. She also read poems from a book full of poems she wrote about Hurricane Katrina. She used real stories and real people that died during the disaster and she gave them voices; a glimpse into the terror they endured. At the end of the reading she told us about how she writes her poems better under a deadline and the things that inspired her to write. Though I”ve never really attempted poetry and do not feel like I could ever be too successful at it, her poetry was inspiring and emotional. This reading made me want to attend more poetry readings and really listen to the words the poet is reading.