As most of you are (hopefully) aware, the Theories of Writing class, under Daisy Levy, hosted the Poetry Palooza, on April 23rd. As someone who is -quite painfully- familiar with disappointment (seriously, send help), I was actually pleasantly surprised to see such a large audience filled with such cold, dead gazes…I may be projecting a little; I digress.

Honestly, being a part of such a thing was a fun and interactive experience. Having participated in the previous year’s poetry event, I’m particularly interested in seeing this become a habit. This, coming from someone who isn’t even a poet, should have some level of merit in regards to the enjoyment to be had. That said, I feel as if there were a couple of things that could’ve, and for future reference should be, considered for future events like this.

First and foremost, I was particularly saddened -read: absolutely crushed, degraded, and mortified; spiritually and mentally- to learn that our initial collective suggestions at a delicious, nutritious meatball extravaganza were so resolutely shot down. Watching that plan crash and burn was like watching a baby bird get hit with a heat-seeking missile. How can you even justify such gratuitous levels of evil? I mean, as awesome as our event turned out, nevertheless there is no force on this planet that could convince me that a bunch of poets, gorging excessively on one of the ten master foods delivered by God, would not have been awesome beyond comprehension…Moving on.

Secondly, there were a couple of oh crap moments that I noticed throughout the course of our little shindig. The first and foremost being the several moments of awkwardness between a few of our activities. Moving into the community poetry chunk of our event, and subsequently realizing that absolutely no one was prepared or willing to walk up front and serenade us with sweet, metrical composition was a fairly cringe-worthy level of discomfort. I don’t know why we, the planners, forgot to prepare our own poems for that very circumstance -we had, the previous year- but hindsight is 20/20, eh?

Finally, and quite possibly the most regrettable was our final decision to refrain from the use of background music. We had such hits lined up to arrange for a soothing, healthy atmosphere. Such hit titles like:

• Crawling in my Skin, by Linkin Park

• Let the Bodies Hit the Floor, by Drowning Pool

• Bring me to Life, by Evanescence, and

• Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued”, by Fall Out Boy

Beyond those -admittedly major- gripes, I thought the Poetry Palooza was a big hit that certainly has excited me for future, similar events. Despite the moments of awkwardness, or perhaps even because of it, I felt as though there was so much fun to be had. We all got to laugh, play neat games, and be awkward together, which is objectively better than being awkward alone.

… I’m still sore about the meatballs, though.