#writememphis

[writememphis-blog]

Poetry Slam

the poetry slam

the music, the lyrics

are who I truly am.

Watching my elders

not always older

i watch his words burn

I see his eyes smolder

he changes his pitch

adding dramatic pauses...

I see the passion

in every one of his

clauses.

Sometimes I feel

scared and choked up

don't know what to say

but I release; let go,

and the fear falls away.

The Poetry Slam.

The Poetry Slam.

Now is when I

look into the croud and tell them...

Here I am.

--Mathieu White

Participant, Poetry Slam Workshop 2012

[writememphis-blog]

Thursday! Thursday! Thursday! We can't wait!

[writememphis-blog]

We meet each week, a hodgepodge group of young and old, black and white, those with homes and without, youth mentors, waiters and those between jobs. We write and share our writing. In an hour and a half we drill up poems, short stories and essays. One woman sometimes writes about growing up during the civil rights movement, but more often writes about her dreams of making it big and buying a Benz. Another woman writes intensely personal poems, contrasting outside perceptions of homelessness with her own experience. We've begun to feel like a real community. As I leave Caritas and drive home, I see members of the workshop walking through Binghamton holding their notebooks filled with writing, and I can feel the web-like community we've created growing, extending outward through the city.

WriteMemphis volunteer Martha Park on her experience as a WM facilitator in our Caritas Village workshop. Read the rest here.