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Invictus

August 14, 2011 By 2 Comments

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

By William Ernest Henley

Filed Under: Poems and Poets

Traveling poet speaks to Speak 2B Free

June 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last week on Speak 2B Free Radio we interviewed Apollo Poetry about his show “The Traveling Poet” and some of his upcoming projects, here is what he had to say:

Tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Apollo Poetry, that is my legal name now. I changed my last name to Poetry. I have been doing poetry for over 15 years. I am also a film maker, photographer and an author. I started a project called the Traveling Poet project, that is a project that is using poetry as a bridge to create peace.

Tell us about your journey?

It started a few years ago. I was meditating in Sedona and I had this really amazing dream in meditation and I found my true passions – travel and poetry and I thought: He – travelingpoet.com and bought the domain and had the website built in a couple of days and started planning the tour. That’s one of the things about dreams – if you have an idea, I think the idea came to you for a reason, so it’s up to you to just go for it.

What are you hoping to achieve with the traveling poet show?

What I noticed was that in most high schools all across America they were actually losing funding in the arts. In the early 1900s poetry was actually taught in high schools but now they don’t even have art, poetry or music. To me creating is one of the most important things in the entire universe, that’s what the entire universe is based on. It’s based on creation and motivation and thinking about expansion so to me music, poetry and self expression is very important so I decided to create these programs where I went to high schools and got kids riled up about poetry.

How did you get into poetry?

I like to think poetry got into me. I like to think that we are all poetry and all of us are scripting our stories all the time. Poetry is more than just writing down, it has become a perspective for me. I started writing a few years ago and I just love the fact that you can take your thoughts which are invisible and put them on paper and create something.

Do you see yourself as a vessel for the message?

I’m on the line about channeling. I do think that everyone is channeling something but not in the way that most people use the word. I do think everything is made of energy so you just have to let the energy come through you.

How are you able to fund your passions?

Everything is definitely a step process. I have plans to go through every country in Africa, it’s not like I have the funds to do that right now, but when I started this vision I did not have the funds to go around the country (the USA) and 3 months later I was going around the country because I was focusing my intent on doing that – I got sponsorships. It really is about where I wanna focus my energy and I believe that’s true for everybody.

What has following your dreams taught you about life?

Through my travels and through my poems I have learned that different people have different perspectives. Poetry has taught me to respect other people’s opinions, most of the time we judge people from such limited pieces of information; we don’t even know what their lives are like. Nothing is more powerful than when a person stands behind a microphone and shares their perspective with me.

One of my visions for next year is to take poets from conflicting countries; have one poet from Israel and one poet from Iran and have them do a group poem together through skype and just unite the world through expression.

Video performance by Apollo



To listen to the full interview with Apollo go to Speak 2B Free radio at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/speak2bfree/2011/05/25/the-traveling-poet

 

Filed Under: Art of Spoken Word, Poet Interviews

Is hip hop dying or just evolving?

April 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Last week on the Speak 2B Free radio show we were lucky enough to interview Trx-V Stylordz, founder of the Norther Zulu Nation Chapter, about the work he does teaching people about the history of hip hop. A little about Trx: he teaches about the various elements of hip hop such as break dancing and spoken word and has appeared on MTV and Bravo TV.

He shared with us some of his insights on: hip hop and how it has evolved and created a space for spoken word poetry and slam poetry?

Filed Under: Poet Interviews Tagged With: , ,

How to give a great performance even when you doubt yourself

April 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Talk Shows On Mute Today I spent my whole hour of meditation trying to meditate and growing slowly frustrated and challenging myself to focus on my breathing and remain balanced. Of course this was a losing battle and when my alarm went off after an hour I was very disappointed and then it hit me that maybe I was meditating because I felt every single sensation and every single minute of frustration in different parts of my body and I just did not notice it because I was clinging to this concept of what my meditation experience should feel and look like. This led me to some insights on spoken word, public speaking and giving a great performance when you are not able to focus or are just having a bad day by just letting go of the idea of what we think our best performance should look like and doing the best we can in that moment:

Know that your best is always a moving target

There are days when you can get onstage and just give a performance your all and everyone will connect with everything that you are saying and you can do no wrong. And then there are times when you will commit to do your best and you will forget some lines (it has happened to me) and you will mess up something you know so well and can recite in your sleep and it will all fall apart at the last minute and this does not mean it’s bad, it could just mean it is different. Just like how I thought I was completely not focused in my meditation only to realize I was focused but I just did not like what I felt.

Acknowledge yourself for your courage

Sharing your work in public as a writer or a spoken word poet takes courage and you should acknowledge yourself for the courage. I spent years always focusing on what I was not doing and trying to perfect my lines that I forgot to take a moment to acknowledge my efforts. Sometimes all you can do is commit to do your best and acknowledge that you did your best.

The day I got back from Vipassna I had the bright idea of going to perform at a poetry slam without giving myself time to rest. Luckily all I could do was be a sacrificial poet, which meant I could only read one poem, which turned into a huge blessing. But I was seated next to a poet who after his performance proceeded to tell me all the wrong things he had done, none of which I had noticed. I later told him that I thought his performance was great and I thought he should acknowledge it as well and pat himself on the back for having the courage to share his story.

Be true to your work

We write and perform to connect with others and to bring them into our world but to connect we have to be willing to remain true to ourselves or else we risk coming across as hollow so even on a bad day just be true to yourself. I once shared a poem I wrote on Facebook and two very close friends responded by saying: “wow Van such pain”. I was totally taken aback because to me the poem was not at all painful but really about resignation and acceptance of self and I spent days debating if I should change my tone when I recite it but in the end I decided to be true to myself and it has always been one of my favorite pieces and the first time I recited it, it got a 10 (Im not one for points but that was a shock).

I would be interested to know how you give a great performance even when you are having a bad day, please share in the comments section below.

Image by Flckr user:  Katie Tegtmeyer

Filed Under: Art of Spoken Word

The politics in poetry and the poetry in politics

January 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MSc Wordle eLearning, Politics and Society UnitWe recently interviewed Richard Newman who is a poet and author about his books and his translating career.

Tell us a little about yourself

I am a college professor at Nassau Community College in Garden City, NY where I co-ordinate the creative writing project. As a writer I have written a book called “the silence of men” and have also translated 2 books of Iranian poetry. I also write essays and most of what I write deals with issues of gender and sexuality.

What inspired you to start poem translation?

The poem translation happened by accident. I am not a translator by profession, I speak Persian but I am a native English speaker and I do translation by working with native English speakers. My wife is from Iran so through her we are connected to the Iranian community and a friend of mine knew someone who was interested in translating the works of Iranian poets who had a huge influence on Western authors such as Emerson and Goethe. They were looking for a native English speaker to help them translate from Iranian to English and my friend connected me to them. I did not know anything about classical Iranian poetry before I started doing this.

How can poets get involved in translation?

My experience is not typical; translating poetry is a labor of love. Most poets who translate do so because they have encountered the work of a poet in a language that they read and they know. Out of the love that they have for that poet or that language they translate their work. Publishers in the USA are rarely willing to take a risk on new translations or new translators. The small presses who publish translations also have limited resources.

Should poetry be political?

Poetry is political. The question is whether or not it is involved with a particular politics. If I choose to write poetry about domestic violence that is a political position because it is saying something about the significance I attach to domestic violence which is political. What I write raises questions about what it means to be a man, what it means to have male privilege or what it means to be sexual in a world that defines male sexuality as predatory.

What are the lessons you have learned on you journey as a professional poet?

Besides spoken word poets who travel and perform, I don’t know anyone who makes a living from poetry. Every poet that I know, even the most well known have some other job that they do to food on the table. I don’t know why anyone would become a poet unless they feel the need to do it. One of the lessons you have to learn is that when it comes to writing you have to be willing to be selfish. You have to be willing to carve time out of your day and out of your week to do nothing and write.

Do you perform your poetry?

Being a spoken word poet and booking readings is one of the hardest things for any poet to do unless you are very well known.  I make phone calls and send out emails and send copies of my book but that part of your life you have to treat like a business. To get your work out there you have to be willing to market yourself, which is not something that most poets are good at.

Listen to the interview

Image by Flickr user tjmwatson

Filed Under: Art of Spoken Word Tagged With: , , , ,
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