I had attempted to write about Semester 1 before its sequel began but, as I’m about to explain, my weekend was kind of occupied.
Yesterday, along with four other English Lit students from my
Uni, I attended a competition under the name of UniSlam. It was, to say the
least, an impressive showcase of poetry from 16 different Universities across
the whole of the UK. Having been arranged into heats, we were knocked out by
the first Prelim against much older, much more experienced competition. There are
no hard feelings – this was our first attempt and our team was compromised of
primarily first and second years against Final years & Postgraduates. What it did
make me realise however is just how much more work I have to do.
Since arriving at University, I wrote more poetry in the last
four months than I did for the rest of 2015. A lot of last year was quite
difficult for and usually I channel via verse but it never seem to come until I
started to attend HOWL Poetry Sessions in
Uplands, Swansea. At last I had found a scene originally only viewed on Youtube
and admittedly, in dreams. When arriving at HOWL, one realised just how huge
the poetry spoken word scene is and there are constantly events for us to
attend as performers. It’s really refreshing as a student being able to do something
which has really been a part of my life for the best part of 5-6 years. (That
is to say, that’s how serious I’ve been writing poetry for, as serious as you
can get at least).
To then attend a national competition representing my Uni was
really special to me. The range of talent amongst the performers as well as the
content made me realise while I have improved, I have so much more to work on.
I don’t like talking too extensively about my work – I think poetry is good
when you can draw conclusions from it yourself, it proves you’re engaging with
the art. I’ve really tried to construct stronger analogy as well as broader
themes, feeling my poems would become very out of touch. My judge yesterday
said sometimes, ideas were still hard to follow through, which I wholeheartedly
agree with.
My only New Year’s resolution (aside cycle more) is to write
like I’m running out of time. This is in reference to Hamilton, my favourite musical written by the brilliant Lin Manuel
Miranda. Recently he has been doing some 6 performances a night, writing music
for a Disney film, writing a song for a Star Wars film as well as having just written
Hamilton AND helping raise his 1 year
old song. It is this enthusiasm which has really made me race and jump up more
at writing and forcing myself to write in general – if LMM can do all that, I can
at least finish whatever I’m working on.
This inspiration has made me more creatively resilient, which
I think Uni Slam has done too. I was ready to hear constructive criticism to
work with so I can get stronger as a performer and as a poet. I’m not saying I’m
about become some neo-Ginsberg type any time soon but, I’m hoping that I can
reflect in a few months’ time and be able to see an obvious change and growth.
My only regret concerning this wonderful opportunity is that there wasn’t
enough time to be able to spitball with other creatives, conferring with my
contemporaries and simply a lot of admiration from afar of others.
Now, it’s back to notebooks to do some more scribbling....
