#also tbh my finger doesn't love holding my phone like this rn either

[celiaelise]

I went to my second ever poetry slam last night, it was really fun!!! 😄

And also, I finally have my first piece that I could theoretically read at such an event! I really want to get involved, I feel like I'd really like it, and I might even be pretty good at it!

I wrote the piece yesterday, but I didn't try reading or timing it until just now, and was excited to find it clocks in right at about 2:50! (the time limit for slam poetry is three minutes)

I have this monologue I really like that I wrote, like, four years ago, and it's really good, but it's literally six minutes long. I tried editing it down to what felt like the most important parts, but I still couldn't get it under four minutes.

But now I do have something I could read, which is exciting!! Though technically I should have 3 things ready if I'm going to enter a slam, in case I make it to the final round. (though some people do improvise! Someone did last night. It was pretty impressive, but I think I'm too much of a perfectionist to do that without just making myself upset.) The thing I have now (currently titled "scream") is not as good as that other monologue thing I have, (tentatively titled "a monster") in my opinion. But I don't think it's bad, either.

Slam poetry is very different from any other art form I've tried, in that you are quite actively trying to please the audience in real time. It is a competition, and you get scores. When I was younger I probably would've abhorred such a threat to artistic integrity, but I don't hate it? And everyone's still super supportive, of course.

I've started a list of a bunch of other ideas, though!! So I think I'll be able to pull together a couple other things sometime soon. But I can't write them tonight, because I somehow slightly hurt one of my fingers while sleeping a couple nights back, and I taped it up to trying save be responsible and take care of my body and not make anything worse. So I can't type on a keyboard, or even hand write very well lol. I'm swiping on my phone rn, but when I'm writing creatively I prefer to keep a quicker pace than this little device can achieve.

Also I should go to sleep soon because I just worked nine hours and I gotta wake up tomorrow and go work eight more! Not to mention the Christmas preparations I still have to make! 🤦🏻‍♀️