“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