Live poetry is what it’s all about. The inner voice that speaks when you read a poem to yourself can be beautifully contemplative. But hearing poetry read out loud, by a poet who is stood right in front of you, in all their glory, in all their vulnerability, and hearing the meaning in the sounds created by the words, as well as the meaning of the words themselves, will always, for me, beat reading the same poem in a book or anthology…
I think James from Sacred Heart School, London, knows what I’m talking about. Below is an extract from a review he wrote on National Poetry Day Live 2009, an afternoon of poetry readings, read out loud, in the Clore Ballroom…
“The MC’s opened up the event, with two differing styles of poetry, one with a more traditional vibe, the other with a ‘rap’ vibe/rhythm, each with pleasing content to just about everyone in the audience…
…I was surprised, and pleased to see many different poets, reciting different poems, in different styles. Some poets had me in stitches, where others had me engulfed in complex thought. It changed my perspective of what poetry is, not simply the stuff in the Anthology you have to study and annotate, but more the expression of the soul and mind through spoken, rhythmic word…”
Filed under: Global Poetry System | Tagged: clore ball room, national poetry day, Poetry, sacred heart school, Southbank Centre
