Spoken Word Poetry

        The past few weeks we have been working with poetry. We have done many assignments and projects that have expanded my knowledge and allowed me to grow as a poet, one being the mentor poet assignment. For the mentor poet assignment I chose Shane Koyczan, a Canadian writer and spoken word poet. 

        I’ve always been drawn to spoken word poetry. I remember the first time I saw it being performed was in my eighth grade video tech class. Every Friday, my teacher would show us inspirational and moving videos that would hopefully open up our perspectives on certain things in our everyday life. He just happened one Friday to show this certain poet and his poetry and it has stuck with me ever since. “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan, is a spoken word poem about bullying. I remember when I saw it, I was instantly moved and gravitated towards it because of my past experience of being bullied. In his poem, Koyczan touches on the names he was called and how that name-calling shaped his overall identity. He also talks about how normal the concept of bullying has become, and how as a society it’s not talked about much anymore.

        I knew immediately when assigned this assignment that I was going to write on Koyczan. His poem has been something I’ve always remembered and happened to introduce me to spoken word poetry. I think spoken word poetry is the most powerful type of poetry because it's raw, it's personal, and the live aspect of it makes it so much more real.