Last Tuesday on December 6th, I attended the poetry reading at Spill the Beans. There are a lot of people that attended the event, making it difficult to find a seat. The poets were Clemson University students taking a poetry-writing course. Each of them read one or two of their favorite poems and then read aloud their own.
The first reader and poet was Callie Berry. She read a poem entitled “the avocado.” The setting of the poem was during the Civil War. Much of the poem were a list of demands #21, #45. Demand #21 was to have a statue of Harriet Tubman in the mall. The avocado in the poem was supposed to embody an abolitionist. I enjoyed this poem, however it was hard for me to follow. Her next poem was called “Cyber Optimism.” This poem was her original poem and it’s told over period of 71 hours when her mom divorces her dad. The father is a very hard working man who has hope for his daughter. The girl in the story meets this boy and they move quickly into a relationship, but they are not “boyfriend and girlfriend.” The boy is not very educated, but he’s extremely goofy and funny. He calls the two of them, “Hamlet and Juliet” instead of “Romeo.” His moves are smooth, and she doesn’t fall in to him. At the end of the poem, the reader calls the girl, “spacegirl, flying and soaring.”
The next reader was Micah Bransteen, he read “Mind of a region.” Next was Adam Smith reading, “Miami in September” and “Tenacity.” After was Jeffrey Membane. He read “The old people say” and “Daring boys to do something.” I really enjoyed the “Daring boys to do something” poem. The tone of his voice and the flow of the poem were harmonious together. The poem was about how young boys and teenagers steal things. However, when one of the boys tries to steal again, he doesn’t. I believe the reader was trying to prove how useless and pathetic it is to steal things.
Another reader was Justin Holiday. He read an poem about a dead boy that always said, “Ramona” after each phrase of the poem. I though it was in a way dark, and haunting. It was hard to tell if the boy in the poem used to be in a relationship with Ramona or it was his cousin or close friend. The next poem was, “The South will rise again.” I really liked this poem. The poem was about how the Northern people and Southern people are opposites. The aggressors and the gentlemen, stars and beers, the famous grits, and country folk were called out during the poem. I really liked everything Justin read. They were two poems that are completely opposites and caught me off guard.
The next poem that was read was, “Sing you to sleep.” The poem was a young man who was taking care of his alcoholic mother. He visits her in her apartment and the place is a mess. The mother is a chain smoker who also has emphysema. He waits for 18 minutes while she buys her $1 eye shadow from the dollar store. It seems that the young man is so miserable taking care of his mother, but he isn’t. At the very end of the poem, you can tell he loves her when he says, “won’t hurt when I’m around.”
I enjoyed attending the poetry reading. It was a nice walk and break from studying for exams. The poems were all so interesting, but some of them were hard to follow. I don’t normally read poetry, but I love it. Hearing all the poems was very refreshing and I thought it was really cool and wonderful seeing the creativity of Clemson students.
No comments:
Post a Comment