A stage of ones own
Having spent many entertaining night outs at local Poetry Slam events watching poets take control of the mic to entertain and inspire the audience with their thoughts and words, I've always wondered what it must be like to stand on the stage, own it and present to a room full of strangers your own self created poem.
Super shy me
From the tender age of 8 I was made to go to elocution lessons, apparently I had a speech problem as a result of poor hearing, but actually I think it was more the whim of my parents to try and soften the beautiful broad Black Country accent I was nicely developing.
Despite being ridiculed mercilessly by my class mates for years I loved these lessons enough not to quit and continued them until I went to University when had to move away from home.
One of the things I loved about these lessons were the poems and prose I had to learn by heart and present in public competitions, or more challenging to progress through The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art awards.
Both were lessons in flexing the muscle to hide the super shy me... even now people don't believe me when I say I'm super shy. and I am, honestly!
Poetry Slam workshop
When I saw the chance to take part in a poetry slam workshop with the Poetry Slam Legend Hank Flemming at the Schramberg VHS in September 2024, I jumped at the chance the opportunity presented to work on my own poetry with the possibility of presenting it at a real Poetry Slam event.
Bracing the Nerves
The workshop was a wonderful chance to explore and learn different ways to write and present poetry with positive and helpful feedback along the way. After working on my own poem, with encouragement and tips from Hank as well as from the other group members, I took the chance to present it, live on stage, performing in English, to an audience who probably didn't understand half of what I said, ha ha ha!
It was a super scary, heart racing moment but a great experience, there was so much support and encouragement from the other poetry slammers that I will be forever thankful to them. I didn't win any prizes, not that I expected to, but I made new friends and developed a whole new appreciation for all those poets who put their souls out there and present their poems live to strangers from a stage.
Would I do it again? Maybe, but not in a hurry.
The Poem
Based on topic `caught between two worlds`, a random topic chosen at the workshop by one of the participants as a 5 minute brainstorming activity. The idea being to write for 5 minutes about anything that came into the head on that theme. I instantly thought of my University students and just rolled with that. Below is the polished version I used at the slam, it's quite long but that was also the rule, a 7 minute spoken poem., I'm not quite sure I made the 7 minutes.
Generation Zed
As I watch the students invisibly slink into the room
To quietly, steal a seat at the front, I think…
‘They’re not like they used to be’
Gone are the days when they came stomping in, rowdy,
Slamming bags down, hitting the ground,
Screaming out to the street, hollering through corridors
Loud, present, intimidating and confident, knuckling hair,
Dragging chairs… as far away from me as possible!
In comparison, these students in front of me, seem meek
This is generation Zed, with a different flair,
One enters the room with bright green hair.
It’s the first day of the semester and classes are flowing,
They’re all on their phones their faces glowing,
Scrolling through streams and feeds,
A glazed look in the eye, half present… half shy,
In-tense, present perfect, they’re a new pronoun,
I sigh.
Living through an epidemic of insecurity,
Self esteem tried and tested with no immunity
Caught between worlds and augmented reality,
Live streams, tweets, Cyber bullying, fatality
The age of disinformation, truth going astray
Fake news, Gaming, online shaming
Likes, dislikes on display
A.I fascination, Instant gratification
This is Generation Zed
Hard wired from birth into the world wide web,
Insta, Snapchat, X
Facebook, FOMO
Tik Tok, paypal
Wechat, they chat, Whatsapp
Linkedin, Zoom
Influenced by influencers, Netflix stars,
YouTubers, Ubers, morning bloopers,
Algorithms straight to the head!
A tapestry of cultures sit in front of me,
Set apart by their online reality,
Fuelled by Ritelin, Red bull and Vapes.
These… strange creatures of the future…patiently wait.
How can I reach them, teach them, speak to them, connect?
They don’t need me, they have Deepl and Chat GPT 3
I clear my throat, begin to speak
‘Welcome to English Technology 1 point two three ’
A silence and hush fills the room,
This is the anxious generation in full bloom.
Tech savvy, resilient, progressive and kind,
They’re smart, diverse with an open mind
Black background screens go on, they google share,
They loop and drag and drop and swear,
Their fingers zoom I can’t keep their pace,
I’m fascinated by the speed they can copy and paste.
I coach them, tease them, give them space,
This is generation Zed after all, they need their own pace,
I do not force the grammar rule,
Language is flexible, flowing, a powerful tool
Through which powerful people learn to rule.
I encourage them to think, to argue and question
The Language presented for digestion.
This is not a race,
I want them to work together,
To communicate… face to face
I do not hold them to the clock,
After all, this is generation TikTok
And in this present perfect state,
With the climate burning at an incredible rate,
Wars churning, growing social unrest,
This is The Future at its best,
And my teaching skills…are put to the test.
But by listening and giving them room to speak,
Through humour and tears I find they seek,
A kinder world,
A world, ruled not by guns and fear
But shaped by values that they hold dear
With Balance, peace, sustainability.
Hope, inclusion, clarity
And in their fragile anxious state,
I find they have the language and courage to innovate.
Writen by me, Louise Ott - 2024
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