Learning is earning… even when we bomb.<\/p>\n
I attended my first-ever poetry slam last night. Something I have wanted to do for years. I put it all out there; I tried hard … but my work didn’t make it past the first round. Even lovesick teenagers lamenting how wrongly they were treated by some bygone lover scored higher than me.<\/p>\n
Should I quit writing? No. I should focus.<\/p>\n
Here’s what I mean…<\/p>\n
The poem I chose to lead with (and end with) is a bit heavy. It speaks of how easily it is to get gobbled up by relationships, jobs, society–and end up trapped, unable to get free. The poem begins, “I have been eaten by a wolf. You cannot see me…”<\/p>\n
It’s a bit deep for many folks.\u00a0 And the 20-something judges, especially, didn’t seem to\u00a0 have a clue about what I was saying. It wasn’t their fault, though. It was mine. I could have focused in on the audience, maybe included some preamble to set the situation.<\/p>\n
I was speaking to people who came to be entertained that night. Most of them young rappers.\u00a0 Big lesson learned: Know your goal, and be sure it is clear to those to whom you are trying to communicate that goal.<\/p>\n
And… you can’t be everything to everyone.<\/p>\n
Here’s\u00a0the poem that began my poetry slam endeavors:<\/p>\n
I have been eaten by a wolf, you cannot see me.
\nBut, Perhaps you can hear me speak from inside the beast
\nif I try. I will try.<\/p>\n
There are others here\u2026 This wolf is voracious
\nhe seeks day and night to devour every fool he can.
\nSometimes the wolf dresses like a woman, sometimes like a man, sometimes like an EMPLOYER, sometimes like your own MOTHER\u2026
\nBy the time you realize you are being eaten it is
\nAlmost Too late.<\/p>\n
We try to make the best of it here. We tell one another about \u201csome day.\u201d We sing songs and hold hands and pray. God, how we pray.<\/p>\n
Here is our dilemma: The wolf is ravenous and bold. His yellow wolf-eyes are greedy. His appetite is never satisfied. Never. He stalks day and night. He never sleeps. Never. Even if we were able to escape,
\nsomehow escape, He would Pounce without MERCY
\nanger unBEARable.<\/p>\n
His wolf-teeth dripping wolf-saliva fangs into our flesh
\nBleeding furious wolf-feeding his friends gather
\nlike hyenas and lions and ugly horrible
\ncreatures unseen would immediately devour, destroy, die.<\/p>\n
If\u2026 If you can hear me, friend, then I ask only one thing please\u2026
\ndo you know a Wolf-SLAYER?<\/p>\n
Okay… so I can see why that poem might not fly in a rap contest. Later, though, the slam director told me several audience members told her they hoped I would be back next year to try again.<\/p>\n
Focus is the key, Don.\u00a0 Live and learn.<\/p>\n
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