Rawr

Slam... the word in itself meaning "a forceful impact causing a loud noise". Poetry... understandably one of the more boring sections of literature. The dictionary definition of poetry says that it is the "measured language of emotion". Combined, these two words create a measured language containing forceful impacts that are used to bring forth emotion. This, was, i believe, th eexact thing that construction worker/ poet marc smith had in mind when he took poetry readings out of coffehouses and college libraries in 1986 and brought them to street corners, bars, and everyday hangouts of the average american, and rather just bring the english professors with him, he brought in a whole new crowd of college STUDENTS and modern hippy kids dying for a new wavelength of expression.

However, as with any new phenomena of creativity, ironically, there has to be rules. And, even though most of today\'s

poetry slams are 100% free speech, there are rules as to how long u are allowed "mic time" (3 minutes), there are no costumes or other accompaniments such as music or props. This brings all of the raw energy out of the poetry and challenges the poet themself to become more expressive and elaborate with not only their writings but in their performance.

Furthermore, with the institution of judges and scorecards that are randomly selected out of audience members, the feeling of competition and teamwork began to arise within each city and individual slam. This was the final straw separating

SLAM from the "open mic" crowd that Marc Smith was originally trying to separate

from. Because of this, over time, it has evolved to the point where National Poetry Competitions have been held every year in which every city with a slam is represented by the finest that city has to offer.

Ok with all that in mind, i