- Hi Platform.
My name's Savannah Brown
and I'm here to talk to you
a little bit about spoken word poetry
for National Poetry Day.
We'll talk a little bit
about sort of the conception
of an idea and how to
grow that into a poem,
and then how to perform it.
So the first thing you sort of need to do
is find what inspires you,
which sounds like a massive
topic and that's because it is.
But on a day-to-day
basis it's sort of just
about finding the things
that really interest you
and compel you to want
to sort of explore more.
What I like to do when I've decided
I would like to write about something is
I guess it's a mind map
where you sort of take a blank page
and put your topic in
the center of the page,
and then just branch off into
any direction you can think of
write literally any word you can associate
with that topic, just anything.
And you'll be surprised by
what you can actually draw back
to the topic and actually
you might go in a different
direction than you even
intended to in the first place.
And then from there I like to do
a sort of stream of consciousness exercise
where I'll sort of take
all those different ideas
and try to put them into a
sort of narrative, I guess,
the flow of the poem sort of consider
what it would look like
from start to finish
by incorporating all of
those different elements.
Obviously the topic you
choose is entirely up to you.
Whether it's actual sort of
physical things in your life,
or do you wanna write about like trees
or the sky or nature or whatever?
Or if it's sort of more idea based,
so you wanna write about love or guilt
or those sorts of things
or obviously a lot of spoken word poetry,
too, is issue-based.
So it can be sort of
bigger topics like that.
Well it can literally be anything.
So when you actually start writing,
I like to sort of continue
that stream of consciousness
exercise, I guess,
and all poetry to me is sort of about,
the writing process is about
branching off into different ideas.
So what I like about poetry
is that specificity sort of
that ability to focus on one thing
and explore it really intimately.
But like I said, as you go
there'll be aspects of it
that maybe you hadn't even
considered in the first place.
So I think just continuing
that stream of consciousness
literally writing what anything
that pops into your head.
Initially one of my favorite
things about writing
sort of playing with word choice,
so whether that's like alliteration
or those sort of things
especially since it's spoken words,
I like to sort of
consider while I'm writing
how it will sound when read aloud.
After all this there will come
a point when you're
wondering if it's finished,
or what a finished poem
actually looks like.
And I think the answer is
only you know that.
And I think especially with poems
because they are so
short you have the luxury
of sort of laboring over every word,
but at the same time that
can almost be a curse,
because it's, at least for me,
I'm very much a perfectionist
so it's a lot of fiddling and
changing and playing around.
But I like to just do
one last read through
and if you like how it sounds
and you like what you're trying to say,
I think don't push it.
Poems obviously don't have to be long,
they can be whatever you want them to be.
But I think when it feels
right it's probably right.
When you're finished it will come time
to hopefully perform it,
whether that's for YouTube
or you're actually going
somewhere and performing
which is very exciting.
As someone who's been performing
spoken word for a long time
also as someone who did sort of theater
and speech and debate in high school,
the biggest tip is to speak slowly.
Especially with spoken word,
I think there's an inclination to sorta
get into the rhythm of it,
but by getting into the rhythm
you're actually just
talking really quickly.
And then no one can understand all
the words you're saying that you spent
so much time sort of crafting.
So do yourself a favor, I think,
is what it comes down to
and really be mindful to
how quickly you're speaking
so people can actually understand you.
One of the perks of
reading your own poetry is
that you know exactly how it should sound.
And I think that's honestly
one of my favorite parts of it
is you know where the pauses go,
you know where the emotion is,
you know where the climax
is if there is one.
So again I think it really is just
respecting your own work almost
and taking the time to
appreciate what you've made
and figure out how to present that
in the most compelling way possible.
And having said, have
fun, it should be fun.
If it's not fun, then you're
probably doing it wrong.
Obviously writing if
you're passionate about it,
it should always be fun.
And your enjoyment of what you're doing
should always come first, I think.
So just have fun with it
and I think that'll really come across
when you're performing.
Okay that's all for me.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
If you have any additional tips feel free
to leave them in the comments
and yeah happy National Poetry Day.
(upbeat music)
