Slammin'

This is Young Dawkins, compere of my first ever poetry slam, and something of a poetic bigwig. Yep, I finally got up on stage to do my thang. Not entirely successfully it has to be said. I was in the final heat, alongside three pros as it turned out, and managed to blank completely at the third line. Intake of breath, take a step back, declare I'm starting again, and then nailed it. Bt not well enough to be in the top two in the heat going to the next round. Actually, I say that I was up against three pros, the whole room was filled with them. 14 competitors in total, and even those who hadn't slammed before had performed, or at very least had poetry and writings published. I felt like a bit of an imposter.

But, it really was a nice evening. I learned so much, got some nice feedback (ranging from having a big heart to recover from the initial slip, to people finding what I did genuinely funny - the laughs were certainly in the right places), and got a bit of the bug to try it again (turns out there's a monthly open mic poetry night at the Forest Café).

And thanks to Ondine and Mary for coming along for moral support. I wasn't sure whether I wanted people there that I knew or not, but in the end it was good to have some people there to take my mind off things. Apparently, Mary told me after a trip to the bar, one of the people taking part said that the standard of poetry at this particular slam was much much higher than you usually see. I'm not claiming to have been a major part in that, but it at least gives me comfort at not having got out of my round (that and the fact that the eventual winner came from my heat).

I'll be back to try it again - I know where I went wrong, and want to get better.