March 2, 2024, by Barb Edler

Friday, February 23, 2024, First Place Winner at the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Poetry Slam hosted by Iowa Poetry Association and organized by Kelsey Bigelow.

Photo is a selfie Kelsey Bigelow took after the event.

Last Friday I tied for first place in a poetry slam. The third-place poet missed first place by a half point. Wow, I would say that’s a tight race. Now I get to compete at the Poetry Palooza event on April 19th at Grandview University located in Des Moines. This year’s Palooza has been tightened into a two-day event. The schedule looks amazing, and I am anticipating this special program. I am especially excited to attend the “Cities of the Plains” event because this is an anthology that will be published and has a sijo I wrote included in the publication.

At the poetry slam, I started my program with a poem I developed from a page poem I wrote in 2020 about having a meltdown in aisle three at Hy-Vee which occurred shortly after the shutdown. This version includes how hate has continued to escalate since the pandemic and laments our governor’s decisions to ban books, deny gender affirming care for teens, and cancel the summer food program for children. The second poem was about an ALICE training drill. It begins with “It’s a Great Day to Die” and my final poem was about a personal assault I experienced as a young girl called “The Burning Field.” I may perform one or two of these poems, but I also have one about my dad that is both humorous and kind of sad, too. Of course, there may be a new inspiration waiting to be birthed into a spoken word poem.

Here’s to writing poetry and poetry slams!