“Dear Poetry” was written and peformed at Slam Camp 2010 by Daria L, a 10th-grader at Winter Park H.S. She was reluctant to write any kind of poetry… she kinda hated it. She was also a little shy to perform at first, but in the end she delighted us all with a witty meta-poem about hating poetry, which she performed with a brilliantly dry and funny delivery.

from Dear Poetry,

I hate you
Like I hate words spoken by poets who murder my innocence
Telling me tall tales of sorrow and hatred
I don’t like you
You’re talking to me but…
I don’t care
I don’t care about your hurt or your pain
I don’t care what the white man did
I don’t care what’s right or fair
I don’t care about your bi-racial hair
I don’t care if you’re this girl or that girl
Silly girl or fat girl
I don’t like you poetry
With your words spoken flowingly
With your rhythm and rhyme the necessity to keep tine
Bring us back to past times
Of ragtime
I hate you poetry

Dear Poetry, you confuse me
I mean aren’t all words spoken?
It’s not hard being milk’s favorite cookie
No need for self expression
No lyrical conversations
Self medication
Or creative procreation
When you come from a world where everything is served on platinum platter
And the only argument is whose wallet is fatter
Or who can be sadder
Or write something that really matters
I don’t understand you
Poetry, I don’t understand you
How can we learn if we refuse to ask questions
Because we fear the results?
Well it has occurred to me, poetry, that I can’t comprehend long enough
To learn to be your friend
I don’t get you

Dear Poetry,
You’re boring
I’ve been told that TS Eliot is “killing it”
But the only thing he’s been killing lately is my brain cells
When you talk my mind starts to wander
To places there yonder
To boots and boys
To my new toys
Cell phones and iPods
Or that guy’s hot bod
Poetry, you are uninteresting
Poetry, you’re that Goth kid who no one likes
Because he sits in the back and wears tall lack boots like he goes on hikes
Or that cute boy who has no personality
But insists upon being taken seriously
Poetry, you’re dull
Just like the pencil you use to write your pretty little lies
So dark and foreboding
So scary and ongoing
You’re a snore, Poetry

…