A Poetry Changing Experience

I saw the poet Jamaal May read tonight in downtown Ann Arbor. Somehow, this one experience changed my perspective on the entire semester and poetry in general. Jamaal's work was great and he was an amazing performer, but it wasn't only that. There was something about sitting in a coffee shop with local people genuinely interested poetry, no affiliation to school whatsoever, and a great, entertaining performance that showed me I actually enjoy poetry. Not only did I enjoy it in a I had to go for class and it was fine way, I actually would want to go to more readings like this once the semester is over. Jamaal writes slam poetry which really sounds like sophisticated rap. He makes it seem so easy yet each word is so beautiful and perfectly chosen. I could completely relate to his feelings in everything he read. In particular, he read from his book which has a theme of phobias. He was able to create the feelings and experiences through his words without explicitly stating in the poem the specific fear he was discussing. Not only did I love everything he read, he really made me want to try writing some on my own. I realize I think it is something I could enjoy doing, so why not try it.

I realize now that while many of the older poems from the metaphysical, etc. I would not read for pleasure, there is so much poetry out there that I would. Looking back on the semester after hearing Jamaal speak, I can really appreciate everything we studied. While I may not have loved it all and it definitely was challenging, it is so interesting to look back over the evolution of poetry to see how far it has come today. I can also understand why it is so important to study it's progression. Even though slam, for example, sounds completely different than anything we have read in class, the same underlying techniques and literally devices are there (i.e. metaphor). It is clear that each style of poetry has been influenced by its predecessors, and new poets experiment with new ideas while learning from the past.