Somewhere between Dr. Seuss and E.E. Cummings, students are wandering away from poetry and not returning, even as the American poetry scene continues to develop, albeit for an increasingly dwindling audience.
I really believe this is a tremendously exciting time for poetry in this century,"" Kelly Cherry, professor emeritus of English at UW-Madison, said. ""[There is] such a wide range of poets and of poetic styles that I just feel tremendously encouraged by it.""
However, many students never get exposed to the new boundary-pushers in poetry, according to Laurel Yourke, who teaches poetry and fiction through the department of liberal studies and the arts at UW-Madison.
""If traditional poetry is going to be taught, it has to be done in a special way,"" Yourke said. ""There are all these exciting new things but I think students and the general public are not aware of them.""
The small audience size doesn't worry Cherry, who said poetry has long only appealed to a relatively small audience.
""Except maybe during one point during the
Victorian period, poetry's never been a mass sport,"" Cherry said.
Two roads diverged
That may all be changing, though. Poetry's popularity is on the rise, but it's not selling traditonal poetry books. Instead, some of the most renowned new poets are speaking their minds.
Spoken word poetry has been gaining momentum as a movement for a while now, according to Josh Healy, program director for the First Wave program at UW-Madison. First Wave brings together a group of 15 student poets, painters, performers and spoken word artists to perform and learn on campus and nationwide.
""[Spoken word] is exciting, it's fast, it's fresh, and it's become part of youth culture and become part of what's cool,"" Healy said. ""It makes poetry cool, which is not always what we have when we read Shakespeare in high school.""
Spoken word combines the language of poetry with the performance aspect of the stage, which is how poetry originally started, according to Healy.
""Poetry began as an oral tradition,"" he said. ""Poetry began before people wrote it down. Poetry began as telling stories.""
Healy, a spoken word artist himself, oversees the First Wave students as they learn and compete. This is the inaugural year for the program and students for next year's program have already been chosen.
For UW freshman and First Wave member Jair Alvarez, spoken word is taking poetry to new heights.
""I think it speaks to you on a different level,"" Alvarez said. ""When you read a book, you read it, and it speaks to you in a way, but it's not something you can share with a lot of people.""
According to Healy, artists like Tupac and Marc Bamuthi Joseph, as well as media coverage such as HBO's Def Poetry Jam have popularized spoken word and received public acclaim.
""It's about using poetry and art as a way to build community,"" Healy said.
Krystal Gartley, another First Wave student and a UW-Madison freshman, agreed.
""You just get on stage and you say your words, how you feel,"" Gartley said. ""As long as it defines who you are, if it's from you and if it's original, that's what really makes it come alive on stage.""
Even with the appeals of watching poetry performed, however, the written word offers an experience that can't be replaced, according to Cherry.
""I think there are things you can do in written poetry that you can't do in spoken poetry, and things you can do in spoken poetry that you can't do in written poetry,"" Cherry said. ""I see them as complementary, as two directions that are not, however, pulling against each other.""
Healy sees the two aspects of poetry in a similar way.
""A lot of people talk about the page versus the stage, like they're opposites,"" Healy said. ""Really, they're just brother and sister, same sides of the coin, and some people gravitate toward one for whatever reason.""
Alvarez, who writes both poetry for the page and poetry for performance, sees a necessity for both forms.
""You can never take away what you do on the page with performance and vice versa,"" Alvarez said.
""They're different but beautiful in their own ways.""
The perfect time for rhyme
Although spoken word is getting youth across the country involved with poetry, the future of the often-neglected genre is a little uncertain, according to Yourke.
""Poetry has a bad rap and we haven't had a person who has the energy and the skills to change that,"" Yourke said. ""What we really need is for Oprah to decide she loves poetry.""
Not everyone is sold on the idea of poetry leaving the page, either.
""My own allegiance is to the kind of poetry that can be visited and revisited on a page,"" Cherry said.
""Some of the greatest poetry ever written is for the page. Not all of it; go back to Homer. There we are in an oral tradition again, but who would want to throw out the centuries in between?""
Yourke agreed with the need to keep promoting written poetry as well as spoken word.
""If slam poetry gets more people listening to poetry, I'm all for it,"" Yourke said. ""But I think it's just one part of the whole experience of poetry.""
The key, according to Healy, is to get students involved in poetry in any way possible.
""Poetry is not just your 60-year-old white guy reading out of a book at Barnes & Noble,"" Healy said. ""It is that, for sure, but it's not just that. If you're trying to get students excited about anything, you have to give them something that they understand and is relevant to their lives.""
Additionally, Madison as a city is a good place for spoken word to take off, Healy said.
""Spoken word is at the stage of kind of maturing and growing up,"" Healy said. ""The goal is to really make [Madison] a center for spoken word culture and art. I think it's going to happen.""
