Poetry Dies Because A Guy Has Spoken That Word?!

Poetry I knock you out!

Your dead cause I SAY so....

Wrong.

My friend Nathan A Thompson your wrong. 

Basically from what I can see there was a bit of a scandal in the UK poetry scene about two weeks ago when a young spoken word slam artist kind of turned his back on the performance poetry that he actually still teaches young people, through an article in the Independent. 

He declared poetry dead.

Here is the article he wrote, titled, "Poetry Slams Do Nothing To Help The Art Form Survive"...

Read The Original Article Here

I must say I say 'poets united' came out in full force and there were Facebook posts, Twitter tweets and blog posts galore.... where the performance poets fought back with their pens, or laptops, towards something of victory. I saw a tweet that said something along the lines of... 'you don't want to upset a poet as their attack with their pens will be brutal.' That made me chuckle.

I think at this point Nathan Thompson was in the corner surrounded by some angry poets all waving their pens very high to the sky and shouting loudly (after all they are performance poets) until Nathan realised it was getting too dangerous to be silent amidst the LOUD metaphorical disses that were dirtying his otherwise unheard of name.

He posted a response, a kind of justification and kind of acceptance of his wrong... but not really. Check it out:

Interview With Nathan Thompson

From this response, I got he actually does like poetry slams and apparently was attacking the attitude that slam is more authentic because it is underground. Obviously he cannot see the value of slam when he teaches it to young children in schools I presume. Oh but yes but he says he does see the value in slam to inspire young people to write. 

Now I am confused.

Maybe it was something to do with the £100 he was offered to write the piece... I don't know.

All I do know is I have seen many talented and hard-working spoken word artists who put their scars out there in a brave and selfless way. They craft their art and polish their acts to create something which can bring a bearded, butch of a man to tears. 

I know I have seen it. 

The magic they create is the similar to a conversation with a lover who you thought you would never see again and have missed sorely along your path. It's a similar type of aching performance poetry fills.... and longs for that one person to smile, laugh, or be touched in a way that forever changes their path. 

I know I have felt it.