~Finn Whitman, Class of 2025

The slam Poetry unit was challenging yet quite rewarding. The poems that we had to write were always difficult to start, because I could never think of a topic. After I found topics, they were easy to write about. I did not like that we had to include all of those requirements, because it was just like stuffing more words into a finished poem. This unit was pretty fun, and I think that the Slamcast was a really good way to end the unit, and it was really good that there was food and drinks. I also enjoyed making the video for the one minute Slam Poem.

I think that my poems were good, and if I could do a few things better, I would work on my enunciation and time management. When recited, my poems were sometimes hard to understand, because I did not always take the time to pronounce the words correctly, so my recordings were glitchy and sometimes too fast or slow. Come Wednesday night, I had not even started the poem. I typed and typed, writing idea after idea, deleting poem after poem. I finally found a good topic, based on my frustration of having to write these slam poems. I finished it that night, but barely practiced it. Come the slam, I had only practiced it 4 or 5 times, and had no idea what hand gestures to use. I probably didn’t get voted for the finals because I didn’t use my hands.

I don’t know why part of me hates poetry so much, but it’s true. Part of me does. I find it so difficult to write a good poem. My language never sounds poetic, and I always struggle to fit all of the figurative language I need into the poems that I am writing. 

Other than that, The part of me that hates poetry didn’t hate slam poetry as much as other poetry.

If I could retake this unit, and start at the beginning, I would finish my work right away, and not procrastinate or put it off. When I was writing my poetry this unit I would complete my Poem and then stuff it with the Language and requirements I had to meet. If I did this again, I would take the requirements into consideration as I was writing, so that the poem would sound how I wanted it to, and not sound overstuffed.