Snaps, Slams, and Spoken Words

Last night was the opening event for The Spoken Word Festival. The event was free and featured 4 poets (The Quartet 2011) who each read from their recently published books of poetry.

The first poet had me giggling as he described his love as deep as the layers of an onion and captivated with the poem about his grandmother's conversion to Christianity.

The second and third poets were a little bit darker. One shared a poem inspired by a news story about parents who killed their child and left her pieces in garbage bags around the city. The other discussed his mother's fight with breast cancer in three parts.

It was stated that the final poet had entered a national poetry competition with two of her poems. They tied for first place which should give you an idea of her talent. Her control of the English language seduced me right away as she filled my head with romantic notions. She shared a piece inspired by the time she spent a season in a small hotel room in Paris. Hearing her describe the neighbours lovemaking as "tides of the sounds of sex", the smoke from her cigarette curling around the naked light bulb hanging over the bed as she re-read Moby Dick over and over had me lusting for the chance to escape to a similar setting.

I was really surprised that this little city I live in, that is seemingly dedicated to the business of oil and gas, held a standing-room-only poetry event last night and I was super intrigued to hear that the last Thursday of almost every month there is a poetry slam. I can't wait to check out a slam!

Twitter has opened Calgary up for me in regards to art and literature events. For anyone not on Twitter yet, I suggest you try it out even if its just to follow a few different organizations in your city that your interests are in. An entire new world could open up for you too.