EMD Week Performance Poetry Evening

Fresh from an evening at work, which hosted a Performance Poetry Evening, I am basking in the delight of dipping in to my passion for a while in an unexpected context. It was like being home from home and it was a delight to see students come to the fore with unearthed talent. After reading a 'medium' serious poem, vetted for its suitableness in front of students, I shared a couple of light hearted poems of a thematic series, (that of 'no sleep'). It was great to have an unaffected audience, not out to prove anything, just there for the delight of sharing in a great evening of poetry and musical talent. Well done to my fantastic colleague who set the evening up with a great choice of location, and a professional looking stage setting. Photos might follow if they emerge.

Spoken Word - Filming

I've just come back from spending the day filming two spoken word poems in a local park and lake area to represent the seasons 'Summer' and 'Autumn'. This was to reflect two of the seasons that we may experience in our life of faith as we go through our lives and will be used to accompany a sermon series at church which will be delivered in the next few months. It was an interesting experience from the visual techniques used to memorise the words, to an appreciation of the stages involved with filming and editing a video as I watched my colleague in this creative project at work. Delivery of the poems was achieved when both sitting and walking, which was also a great experience to test the effectiveness of both the preparation process ahead of the day and the memory techniques used. Interestingly, this has put to rest a long lived insecurity that I had from my days in a public speaking club, where I lost my words halfway through a five minute speech and had to check my notes. Admittedly, the length of the speech back then was longer than the poems I read for these videos, but the distractions of the outside environment, along with the forward motion whilst walking, were satisfying challenges to overcome. It's been a good day.