The Story Room was delighted to receive this special blog from poet, Joseph Coelho, author of Werewolf Club Rules, Overheard in a Tower Block, Poems Aloud, Smile Out Loud… and many more.
We work hard in our Story Room workshops to build confidence so that children feel encouraged and happy to read their writing out loud, with clear voices and heads held high. We all enjoy listening to each other’s writing and want to savour every word a child has written. This blog from Joseph is an insight into the joy of reading poetry out loud and how to build confidence to really feel comfortable when doing so. Will you accept his challenge?
The Power of Reading Poems Aloud
By Joseph Coelho
Reading a poem aloud can be scary. I remember the first time I read a poem aloud at the Poetry Society at a public event. I was at working at the time and ran to the event after work in my ill-fitting suit. I had a poem I wanted to share but was very nervous, I had never shared a poem publicly before. I remember my knees shaking as I walked up to the stage and then all of a sudden I was reading my poem and like a flash it was over and people were clapping. Afterwards I felt a wave of joyous relief wash over me and I wanted to read another and another… but my time was up so down I sat in the audience mentally planning my next gig.
I wrote Poems Aloud because I want more people to experience that utter joy of reading a poem out loud. It’s like nothing else and sure it’s a bit scary at first, but in some ways it’s that little bit of fear that makes it so special and each time you do it, the easier it gets, but that thrill never leaves. In the book are poems designed to be read slowly or quickly, poems to tickle your mates and creep-out your friends, poems to read in groups and poems to help change the world. What I hope is that when you read the poems and try some of the suggested performance techniques you might be inspired to write some of your own poems and to try out some different ways of reading them out loud. Maybe you’ll want to write a poem with the intention of reading it very slowly… I wonder what such a poem would be about? Maybe it would be a poem about a turtle playing chess or about a grandad surfing on treacle! I bet you can come up with even better ideas than that.
Something special happens when you read poems aloud, you start to feel yourself get a little braver, a little more confident. When I was a kid, I was scared of everything, I had never been on a plane and thought I would always be too scared to go on one, I didn’t even like riding in cars! But as I got older and started performing more poems, I found that I started to get braver. I have now travelled all over the world on lots of different kinds of planes and very much enjoy driving, I rarely even think about how scared I used to be of these things. Everyone is scared of something and often we think that we will never be brave enough to confront our fears but that’s where poetry can help. You can write about your fears and just by the act of writing about them, they become a little bit smaller. You can also challenge yourself to read your poems our loud and in doing so you train your body to get comfortable being a little bit afraid, a little bit of fear is no bad thing and more often than not, on the other side of fear is a gold pot of good feelings. So, here’s my challenge to you, why not try to read a poem out loud. It might be a poem you’ve written, it might be a poem from a book you could try reading it to family and friends, or to yourself alone. Have a go filling the air with the words of a poem see how they make you feel and watch how they affect those around you. Poems are powerful things, they can make people laugh, cry and sigh, think and take action, there is just no telling what might happen when you decide to read a poem aloud.
To find out more about Joseph Coelho https://www.thepoetryofjosephcoelho.com
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