World Poetry Day!

Photo: www.shelbytwplib.org

Today established poets around the world are entering schools to teach our youth the significance of poetry in our language.

Poetry to me is an exploration of the language in its purest form, we do not use the most obvious words in our writing but the most interesting words that can capture an audience’s imagination and take them on a journey of self-discovery.

There are many different variations of poetry – sonnet, limerick, haiku and epic. One of my favourite page poems is an epic poem written by Oscar Wilde called The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1897), which was written as an attack on the prison system, and though it’s an incredibly long poem, I have picked out my favourite stanza for you guys:

“I never saw a man who looked

With such a wistful eye

Upon that little tent of blue

Which prisoners call the sky,

And at every drifting cloud that went 

With sails of silver by.”

However, the poetry that most excites me is performance poetry. It differs greatly from page poetry in that the words are chosen to inflict maximum impact upon a listening audience rather than words that are chosen for their beauty or sentimental values.

The performance poetry scene in Southampton has evolved into a living being over recent years with multiple venues around the city holding poetry gigs and open mics – the most notable are the Art House, Nuffield Theatre and Soul Cellar.

If you’ve never been to a poetry event before then prepare to have your minds blown by the brilliant Steve Larkin! Details can be found here

If you are interested at all in writing poetry and want to progress further in an environment full of like-minded people in the Southampton area, then you may want to check out Artfulscribe's poetry workshops, further information can be found here: Artfulscribe

Here are some videos of some of my favourite poems and poets:

Ed Neal

Film/Music Editor