Poetry Finals

There is an organization called the Capital Poetry Collective. They are an organization that puts on a monthly slam poetry competition. Basically slam poetry is rhythmic poetry, composed solely by the author without any assistance, in a 3 minute time frame. The performances are judged and a tally is made. Last month this tally produced 12 semi-finalists who competed. Last night the 8 who made it to the finals competed once again and 4 winners were determined. These winners make up the Ottawa Slam Poetry team to compete in the 2007 Canadian Wordlympics to be held in Halifax, NS.

This all seems pretty confusing and really is just clouding the issue - Slam Poetry is truly amazing! There is an atmosphere of exhilarated passion from the audience that each poet uses to captivate and motivate with words of glory, beauty, and desire. It seems more like everyone is being taken on a journey by the poet rather than merely observing. Most poets talk about globalisation, poverty, peace, and the common person being corrupted or raped by greed and wealth. However, some seem to truly capture the beauty of something like training for a marathon in beautiful and articulate words. If you have the opportunity to witness poetry readings, especially slam sessions, I suggest you do. Many of the progressive thoughts and beautifully paraphrased prose will be found there.

Special guest John Akpata