Anger, Then Joy

This was originally just going to be a post about North Carolina's really not-nice amendment. Last night they voted in favor of Amendment One, an addition to their state constitution which defines marriage as between "one man and one woman" and effectively bans both civil unions and domestic partnerships.

So basically it's an entire clump of suck. I can't believe there are people in this world who still think that there should be limits to love. There aren't. You love who you love, and if you decide that you want to spend the rest of your life being loyal to and having babies with them, then you should be able to get married! Is that too much for people to understand? Honestly, if they were so concerned about destroying the sanctity of marriage or whatever, they should have made it illegal to get a divorce or cheat on your spouse or marry your first cousin. Apparently all that is still allowed. Yuck.

After reading about the injustice and yelling and being sick over it, I made a decision. I'm not getting married until everyone can.

But not five minutes ago, I learned that there is hope. President Obama has just come out in support of same-sex marriage. I love, love, love this man. Go watch this video. It will make you fist pump for joy. Maybe things are changing faster than we thought.

Really, North Carolina?

Really?

I'll post something more eloquent later, but right now all I am feeling and thinking is disappointment, anger, and sadness.

The Poem In My Pocket

I missed Poem in Your Pocket day. I celebrated it by reading some poems, but I didn't blog about any.

So here is my favorite poem. I don't have the words, but I think it's better that you watch it, see it read how it was meant to be read.

This is "Northcountry" by Kait Rokowski.

Flailing for Finals

Friday, April 20

Finals day. The team checked into the Harper Auditorium waaaaay early so we could run a mic check. We allowed ourselves to get excited, even though winning wasn't really realistic. We were going to get second, and that was completely okay. All that mattered was sharing words with people who appreciate poetry just as much as we do.

It was one very exciting evening. Our team read very well. Actually, we kind of killed it. Our group piece was the best it's ever been. By the end of it, the winner of last year's National Poetry Slam was face down on the floor in front of his seat. I'm not sure why, but well-performed poetry tends to have that effect on people.

When the scores were announced, all the teams were mixed together. It was a beautiful thing, seeing students from four different schools supporting one another's words. Less than one point separated first place from third. Less than a tenth of a point separated second place from first.

That first place happened to be us.

Needless to say there was a lot of screaming and flailing involved.

I have no idea how it happened. Four days have passed and it still hasn't sunk in yet. But we just won the first-ever Louder Than A Bomb: Omaha. Slam communities across the nation know about this. I didn't know how big of a deal this whole event was until after, when I learned that Omaha might be considered to host the Women of the World poetry slam in a few years.

My life is so beautiful. There are so many people to thank, the team, our dear coach Katie, Andrew Ek and Matt Mason, Kevin Coval and Lemar Jordan,everyone who made this happen. I hope they know how many lives they've changed.

Curling Up

Today was the first day all week that I went straight home after school and did not leave. It was normal. I didn't go anywhere or see anyone. It was quite the startling change to go from spending evenings in the loudest place in town (the poetry slam) to wandering around in the quiet of my own home. There was so much silence.

It rained today. Not the feel-good, dance-around, summertime rain. It was the graveyard-cold, gray-skied, fog-in-buckets kind of rain. And it smelled nice, but it made me so sad. I wasn't feeling completely up to scratch anyway, but then the weather changed and it got worse. I went through the day trying very, very hard not to curl up in a ball and cry. I succeeded.

Finals are tomorrow. I don't know what to wear.

I am petrified for Friday.

Like wood. Petrified.

Oops, We Did It Again

We're headed to FINALS!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight was a whirlwind. We rocked the living daylights out of our pieces, people were astounded at the words that came out of our Catholic-school mouths, a huge portion of our student population came to support us.

I have never felt so good about my piece as I did after the bout, when a poet from the other team came to me with tears in her eyes. She grabbed both of my arms and thanked me, over and over. Tonight, I made people cry. And I'm not apologizing for it in the slightest. I know the power of my words and the affect they have on others. It is beautiful.

I'm so proud of this team. We began preparing for this competition as a complete nonentity and now, every single LTAB Omaha school knows who we are and what we're capable of.

But "the point is not the points, the point is the poetry." And we put some quality stuff on that stage tonight.

See you at finals.