ROGERS — Poetry became a competition Friday at Elmwood Middle School.
Seventh-grader Thomas Castelo had classmates laughing as he recited a poem inspired by a night spent at home alone during a thunderstorm. Putting something real in verse helped him win the seventh-grade champion title, Thomas said.
At A Glance
What Is A Poetry Slam?
A poetry slam is a performance competition of original poetry.
Props, plagiarism and background music are out. Beatboxing, a form of vocal percussion, is OK.
Official rules give poets three minutes to perform. No time limit was set for the Elmwood poetry slam.
High scores and low scores are thrown out and the others averaged to determine the winner.
Prizes at Elmwood’s slam included an “I slam, therefore I am” T-shirt for grade level champions.
Source: Staff Report
In his poetic version, the lights go out, he stubs his toe and he is frightened there is an intruder as he finds mom's spaghetti all over the floor. That night, the food really did fall in the fridge, Thomas said.
More than 200 students attended workshops during the week, learning about writing skills through poetry with Clayton Scott, educator and former poet laureate of Fayetteville. Scott performed some of his poems for students and asked them to write their own.
“I like them. I like them a lot, those golden, crunchy tater tots,” Scott rhymed to a snickering group of students Friday afternoon.
In a grown-up poetry slam, contestants are judged on two things: writing and delivery, Scott said. The goal is to balance both. The school poetry slam, a competition at the end of the week, lets students display their work.
“I use poetry because it is a great way to develop creative writing,” Scott said.
He talks to students about using similes, metaphors, alliteration and onomatopoeia, or words formed from the sound associated with what is named, like cuckoo. They need action words, descriptive details and a strong beginning and ending. He asks them to use their senses to describe what they feel. Those techniques are used in essays and stories, but in poetry, Scott says, there is more creative freedom.
Harriet Pittman, an eighth-grade English teacher, said the workshop brought life to some of the most reluctant writers.
“What's really cool are the boys,” Pittman said running her hand across her arm as if she had chills.
“This is actually totally different for me,” said Kyle Bowan.
The seventh grader was runner-up to the final round of competition with a poem about his dog Noodle, who, Kyle said, is not exactly smart. Writing poetry is a great way to release feelings because poetry doesn't do anything to make other people mad. Instead, he found other people could relate.
“It's like, wow, so true,” Kyle said.
Parents told Jane Keen, Elmwood Reach coordinator, they were surprised to discover their children could write so well. Scott helped put them in touch with their voice, she said. Keen organized Scott’s visit through a grant from the Arkansas Arts Council.
In class they do essays and stories, but nothing like this, students said.
Ty Olsen, a seventh-grader, judged part of the slam finals. Poems ranged in topic from a description of a Razorback game to a student's fear of the dark, Ty said.
Sixth-grader Sharon Beltran took home the idea of courage in performance.
“When you don't raise your hand it means you have a chicken inside,” Sharon said.
Listening to Scott make up stuff was fun, said Yonatan Valdez, a sixth-grader.
Scott said his first experience with poetry came his senior year at his Kingfisher, Okla., high school when a poet was the guest speaker. While he didn't write any poetry that day, Scott later became part of the student poetry movement at his school.
“I didn't know I was creative until I started writing poetry,” Scott said.
Scott represented Arkansas in the 2001, 2002 and 2003 National Poetry Slams but noticed that poetry circle did not reach very far. About 13 years ago, Scott, a former teacher, began teaching poetry and conducting poetry slams in schools.
Teaching poetry can be an uphill battle because people think it's hard to understand or too girly, Scott said. Instead of using the classics, he uses student work.
Daniel Saenz, a sixth-grader, said he liked the workshops. Poetry is not just for girls, he said.
“It's full of expression and imaginary things,” Daniel said.