I believe that the enjoyment that comes to poetry is not dependent on the poem, but on the poet who presents it. Many people who have been to a poetry class or a spoken word concert are likely to agree with me. Poetry, according to Emily Dickinson, a well-known poet, brings people's thoughts and emotions into being. It resonates with those emotions so deep that they cannot be uttered in the absence of poetry. My love for poetry has been a lifelong experience. I grew up in a family where intellectual growth was more important that our own physical growth. The works of Shakespeare, William Wordsworth and Emily Dickinson were food for our brains. Growing up, I attended many poetry functions where I could just let go and allow the words of the poet to connect with my innermost feelings. My love for poetry has made me a frequent guest in any performance poetry competitions and through continuous observations and a firsthand experience of the poets; I have come to believe that poetry presentation is one of the most fascinating activities in the world.
Presenting poetry is an art that is unique to certain individuals. Everybody can read a poem, but not everyone has the creativity it takes to relay a poem in the manner that the poet would wish for it to be. The presenter of the poem performs in front of an audience. In academic case scenarios, the presentation is followed by questions and analysis of the poem. However, when poetry is meant only for entertainment purposes, the questions are not deemed necessary (Rubin,71). During poetry presentations, the audience can always show appreciation of the work of art by snapping their fingers. Since poetry involves one individual speaking, clapping will only lower the audibility of the poet. An observation of the faces of the audience will reveal the anticipation, high hopes and the anxiety that precedes the utterances of the poet. The members of the audience bank their hopes of enjoyment on the poet only wishing that he/she delivers beyond their expectations.
In most occasions, presenting a poem involves reading or reciting a poem written by someone other than the reader of the poem. In some scenarios, however, the presenter of the poem is the poet himself-the writer of the poem. Such is the case of Maya Angelou, a great American poet known for her poem ‘Still I Rise', which she wrote and presented (Rubin, 184). Nevertheless, a poem’s intended message depends wholly on the reading or presentation of the poem.
Poetry presentations come with a variety of antics to be employed by the poet. The employment of these antiques adds to the aesthetic value (literal beauty) of the poem. Such antics also known as the element of poetry presentations involves the use of facial expressions, tonal variations, body movements and gestures. An audience gets bored when a performer presents a poem with as little movement or no movement at all, such that there’s nothing interesting enough to capture their attention. The level of performance of a performer relies heavily on the presentation antics that he/she incorporates into the poetry presentation. These elements should be used when necessary. Overusing them or underusing them sabotages the presentation quality. When the feeling in the poem is shocked or sad, the presenter must try to evoke the same feelings to the audience through his/her facial expression. Body movements should be limited to resonate to the occurrences within the poem and to set the audience to imagine the words of the speaker.
A performer’s audibility and eloquence are also objects of consideration in poetry performance. The quality of a performance is dependent on the clarity of words by the performer. In a packed theatre, for example, the people at the back usually want to have a similar experience as those at the front of the audience. This is only possible when a performer is audible enough to give them such an experience. Additionally, mastery of content for the performer adds value to the performance. A performer who has a good mastery of content has a lot of confidence to face the audience. It is only in the spoken word poetic competitions that mastery becomes irrelevant. This is because; the performer has to come up with words while he/she is on stage.
Emotion is a basic need in a presenter of a poem. Poetry is all about emotions. Poets play with words with the aim to instill certain emotions in the audience. The themes in poetry are varied, from a theme of escalated joy and merry to a theme of darkness and death. It is important to understand that poems act to portray the real world through art. Normal incidences are made more interesting through poems such that an audience is exposed to new levels of imagination than the normal form of imaginations. The emotions that a performing poet includes in the poetry session influence the way that an audience feels about a poem.
Interacting with some of the poets/performers and the members of the audience has exposed me to more information surrounding poetry presentation (Cárdenas, 20). One of the female members of the audiences whose name I have chosen to disclose on her request admitted that she comes to poetry presentations to detach herself from the world. She believes that poetry has a therapeutic value that everyone should know of and that she leaves the presentations feeling better than she does when she comes. The poets, on the other hand, are usually faced with the pressure of delivering their best to an anticipating audience. Some of the poets that I have interacted with have acknowledged the fear that comes with standing in front of a crowd that is looking up to you to give them life in the form of words. However, one particular presenter- Morris- stated that the fear tends to fall back whenever he has stepped on the stage and had the microphone in his hands. A poet’s world is in his mind, what the audience or anyone else things is not a poet's problem. Bravery and courage encompass a poet’s presentation. An effective presentation requires a poet to face the fears that may hinder an effective performance.
In the community where I come from, poetry is a major heartthrob for most members of that community. A majority of lovers of poetry is the older folk. It appears to have an effect on their happiness to speak. The lovers of poetry in my community have formed a poetry club called ‘Speak it Out'. Here, young poets get to nature their talent as they perform to a crowd mostly composed of older people. Performing to the latter is at first uncomfortable with younger poets, but as they get used to the presentation, the fear wears off and is replaced by the need to perfect their skills and thrill their audience even more.
Conclusively, I seek to shed some light on the importance of poetry and the spoken word. These two go hand in hand. Poetry has over the years died out gradually and continues to do so. It may eventually die out completely if people begin to ignore the fact that human beings need poetry more than poetry needs them. Poetry speaks to our hearts relaying messages that some are too scared to utter. For some people, it is about poetry that they find themselves, and for others, it is through poetry that they come to understand the world better and aim to make a difference. Poetry presentation is not only for entertainment that is just the icing bit of it. The real essence of any poetic presentation is to reveal to people a new dimension of imagination, and sometimes a new side of themselves. Whatever the case, poetry presentation remains to be one of the most fascinating activities that I have been exposed to.
Works Cited
Cárdenas, Melba L. "Publishing And Academic Writing: Experiences Of Authors Who Have Published In PROFILE". PROFILE Issues in Teachers' Professional Development 16.2 (2014): 11-20. Web.
Rubin, Robert Alden. Poetry Out Loud. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1993. Print.
