To be quite honest with you, there are few things in life that I have grown to love. Against the sage forecasts of my grandma, I have not, in fact, grown to love onions. I have not grown to love cats. I have not grown to love old black and white movies. But I have grown to really love and appreciate one thing: poetry. Spoken word, to be exact. And I owe that to this man. He is the reason I scour YouTube for the best spoken word performances on the internet. He is the reason I spend late nights watching HBO’s Def Poetry Jam.
While the content of Rives’ poetry is not suitable for a classroom, there are many performances that are. On Fridays, I will post some of those videos for you. I will tell you what I tell my students: it’s OK if you don’t understand what the poet is talking about. It’s OK if you get lost. As a rule of thumb, you should always read a poem 3 times for understanding. Try to find one aspect of the poem that rings true for you and run with it.
Today’s poem is called “Somewhere There is a Poem,” by Gina Loring. I think it’s an appropriate poem to begin Freestyle Fridays, because Ms. Loring explores the power and purpose of poetry. Enjoy.
