“Poetry lives in every crack, corner and corridor…”
The Poetry Slam Club and the Poetry Slam annual event was
instituted here at Frontier Regional High School 3 years ago. My original
intention in forming the community and the event was to generate a friendlier
and more contemporary attitude toward poetry, at least as an oral tradition.
The event has generated increasing popularity over the years, largely because
of its entertainment value. This year’s
event, however, proved to have a different effect on the student body.
It is rare that high school students are willing to present
in a genuinely confessional manner when it comes to writing anything at all. It
seems that as the event has matured over the years, so have the students grown
more confident and comfortable with risk. Further, whereas in the past, the
most likely students to participate were high functioning students committed to
literature in general, this year brought student athletes, and academically
challenged students. Ironically, it was these students who pushed ahead in the
rankings and, one in particular, walked away with the ultimate prize.
As I looked out at the audience, packed from aisle to aisle,
I had to express my pride in the student body and the teachers for expressing
their love and enthusiasm of the event. More so, I had to express my own
amazement at how many had actually come out to support poetry.
As the few unknowns recited their poems from the heart, the
audience rose to several standing ovations. A few of the contestants were
surprised that they made it out of the first round.
In the end, those that stood out the most were the most
genuine and heartfelt voices; voices that combined sincere sentiment with
musicality, and occasionally humor.
This vital annual event has taken on a life in our middle
school as well, where this coming spring, I will host the first middle school
slam.
In a school dominated by athletes who exercise, in the conventional sense of the word, each day, a new
kind of athlete seems to be emerging within the school’s community: the athlete
of the word.
Gian Di Donna
