Writing Poetry

B2 Level · Slam & Spoken Word — poems written for the stage
Lesson 5 of the Writing Poetry series
1. Warm-up
2. Vocabulary
3. Reading
4. Drill
5. A Real Poem
6. Your Turn
7. Free Write
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Warm-up — Poetry for the Stage

Up to now we've been writing poetry for the PAGE — poems someone reads silently to themselves. Today we look at poetry written for the STAGE — poems written to be performed aloud in front of a live audience.

The technical name is SLAM POETRY, or SPOKEN WORD. They are closely related: spoken word is the broader category, slam is the competitive performance form within it.

How it started

In the mid-1980s, an American construction worker and poet called Marc Smith got tired of poetry readings being dry, polite and elitist. He began running open-mic nights in Chicago, and soon introduced a game: poets performed their work and judges chosen from the audience scored each performance out of 10. The audience was free to cheer, groan and have fun, which made the room loud and alive.

That competitive framing transformed poetry. Suddenly the audience mattered. Lines too clever to land aloud lost. Lines that hit the heart won. A new kind of poem evolved — short, personal, rhythmic, repetitive, and direct. Slam.

Why slam matters even if you never enter a competition

Three reasons:

  1. Slam teaches you to write for an audience, not just yourself. Every choice has to land.
  2. Slam is the most accessible form of poetry. No degree needed, no rhyme rules to learn — just the willingness to mean what you say.
  3. The techniques transfer. Direct address, the volta, the closing beat — these tools work in any kind of poem.
Is slam different from "real" poetry?

No. Slam IS real poetry. The split between "page poets" and "stage poets" is artificial — many of the most respected modern poets (Patricia Smith, Saul Williams, Kae Tempest, Andrea Gibson) work in both worlds. The form is just optimised for a different reader: a listening human rather than a silent one.

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Vocabulary — Eight Slam Tools

These are the eight techniques you'll find in almost every strong slam piece. Tap to reveal each.

Slam
Tap for definition
A poem written to be performed aloud at a poetry-slam competition. Short (2–3 minutes), personal, rhythmic, scored by the audience.
Chicago, mid-1980s — Marc Smith.
The hook
Tap for definition
The opening line — the line that pulls the audience in and tells them: this poem is worth listening to. Slam openings are short, declarative, and personal.
e.g. "I have my father's hands."
Personal stakes
Tap for definition
The subject of a slam piece. Slam works when the speaker has skin in the game — identity, family, grief, fear, injustice. Detached observation does not score.
e.g. a poem about your actual father, not "fathers in general".
Direct address
Tap for definition
A line where the speaker breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience. Pulls them into the poem as participants.
e.g. "You — yes, you in the back — have you ever..."
Anaphora
Tap for definition
The same word or phrase repeated at the START of consecutive lines. The rhythmic engine of slam.
e.g. "I do not have his patience. / I do not have his silence. / I do not have his way of..."
Code-switching
Tap for definition
Switching between languages, dialects, or registers within the poem. Lets the speaker bring the texture of their actual voice into the work.
e.g. dropping a regional phrase or another language inside an English poem.
Volta
Tap for definition
The TURN. A single line where the poem pivots — usually marked by "but," "until," "and then," "now," or "here is what I never learned."
A poem without a volta is a list. A poem with one has shape.
Closing beat
Tap for definition
A short final line — two or three words — delivered after a deliberate pause following the main ending. The moment the audience erupts.
e.g. "Still." / "Watch me." / "Soon."
Tab 3 of 7

Reading — "Hands"

Read this aloud, slowly, as if to an audience. Notice how each move is doing a different job.

Hands
I have my father's hands.
The same square palms,
the same crooked thumb that he broke playing rugby in '69
and never got fixed.
The same lines. The same map.
But I will tell you what I do NOT have.
I do not have his patience.
I do not have his silence.
I do not have his way of looking at the sea
for an entire afternoon
without saying a single word.
You — yes, you in the back, the one looking at your phone —
have you ever sat with someone you loved in total silence
and felt full?
He used to call me "wee man."
In Coleraine that meant: hurry up.
In Coleraine that meant: I love you.
In Coleraine that meant: never leave.
I learned three things from him.
One: how to whistle.
Two: how to stand in a doorway.
Three: how to leave a room without saying goodbye.
And here is what I never learned —
how to stay.
I have my father's hands.
I am still working out what to do with them.
[ pause ]
Still.

What's in this poem?

The eight slam tools — where they appear
  • Slam form — short, personal, free verse, written for the voice.
  • The hook — "I have my father's hands." Five words. The audience is already in.
  • Personal stakes — the speaker's actual father, actual hands, actual loss. Not "fathers in general."
  • Direct address — "You — yes, you in the back, the one looking at your phone — have you ever..." The audience can answer in their head. They become part of the poem.
  • Anaphora — three lines opening with "I do not have his...". Four lines opening with "In Coleraine that meant...". The rhythmic engine.
  • Code-switching — "wee man" — a regional/dialect phrase that brings the speaker's real voice into the poem.
  • The volta — "And here is what I never learned — / how to stay." The poem pivots from inheritance to loss. Without this turn, the poem is a list of memories. With it, it has shape.
  • The closing beat — "Still." One word, after the pause. The audience expects the poem to be over after "what to do with them." Instead they get one more word — and that one word is the moment the room reacts.

Discussion

Tab 4 of 7

Drill — Spot the Slam Tool

1. Which of these is the strongest hook to open a slam poem?
"Today I would like to talk about my feelings about my mother."
"My mother never said sorry; she cooked instead."
"Mothers are important in many cultures."
The second one: short, personal and surprising. It makes the audience want to hear more. The other two are general and flat.
2. Which line is an example of direct address?
"Listen — yes, you — when did you last call home?"
"She kept every receipt."
"The kitchen was small."
Direct address: the speaker talks straight to the audience and pulls them into the poem.
3. Which line is most likely to be the volta?
"We grew up in a small town."
"My father worked nights."
"But here is what nobody told me about silence —"
The third: it begins with "But" and promises a change of direction. A volta is the turn of the poem.
4. Which group of lines uses anaphora?
"I walked home. / It was cold. / The shop was shut."
"She taught me to wait. / She taught me to listen. / She taught me to leave."
"Rain, mud, wind, dark."
The second group: "She taught me to" opens three consecutive lines, giving the passage its rhythm.
5. After a pause, which would make the strongest closing beat?
"Anyway, that is my poem, thank you very much."
"In conclusion, family is important."
"Home."
"Home.": one word, delivered after a pause, with no explanation. The others weaken the ending by explaining or apologising.
Bonus — find the code-switching

"He used to call me wee man." The Ulster-Scots / Northern Irish phrase brings a specific dialect — and therefore a specific PERSON — into the poem. Code-switching doesn't require switching to a different language; switching to a different REGISTER or DIALECT works the same way.

Then the poem doubles down by repeating "In Coleraine that meant…" — naming the specific place. This is the texture of the speaker's real voice landing in the poem.

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A Real Poem — William Blake

So far you have looked at poems written for this lesson. Now read a real poem by a real poet. Read it aloud before you do anything else.

London (first two stanzas)
I wander thro' each charter'd street,
Near where the charter'd Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant's cry of fear,
In every voice: in every ban,
The mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

William Blake (1757–1827), from Songs of Experience, 1794. "Charter'd" = owned, mapped and controlled for profit; "ban" = prohibition or curse; "manacles" = handcuffs.

Blake walks through London and listens. The poem is not a slam poem, but it uses many of the same tools: a strong first-person voice, repetition and a rhythm that begs to be read aloud.

A routine for reading any poem

  1. Read it aloud, slowly. Then read it again.
  2. Ask who is speaking, and to whom. What is the situation?
  3. Say what happens in plain English. One or two sentences, no technique words yet.
  4. Notice the techniques and their effect. Do not just name them; say what each one does.
  5. Respond. What did you feel? Which line stays with you? Do you agree with the poem?

Look closer

Think about each question and answer out loud, then open the reveal to compare.

1. Count the repeated words in the second stanza. What device is this, and what does it do aloud?

"In every… In every… in every…" is anaphora, and "every" appears five times in four lines. Read aloud, it sounds like a drumbeat or a march, and it makes the suffering feel like it is everywhere.

2. What does "mind-forg'd manacles" mean? Which senses are involved?

A metaphor: the chains that bind people are not iron but ideas, fears and habits made in the mind. The poem began with what the speaker sees ("mark in every face"); now it is what he hears ("I hear"). The metaphor is the volta: from outer sights to inner prison.

3. What are the personal stakes here? Does the speaker stand outside the scene or inside it?

He is inside: "I wander", "I meet", "I hear". He is a witness, not a lecturer. That makes it a slam-style voice.

4. Where would you pause or lean on a word if you were performing this?

Discuss. A possible choice: slow down on "marks of weakness, marks of woe" (the repeated "marks" and the /w/ sound), and drive through the three "every" lines before dropping your voice for "I hear".

5. Compare Blake's poem with "Hands" from Tab 3. What do they share and how are they different?

Both use anaphora, a first-person voice and a turn. "Hands" is private and personal (one family); "London" is public and political (a whole city). Both rely on listening.

Language for talking about poems

Use these when you speak or write about any poem.

Say what is happening

  • The poem opens with…
  • The speaker is…
  • The poet addresses…
  • The mood shifts when…

Name a technique

  • The poet uses [technique] to…
  • There is a striking image of…
  • The repetition of "…" emphasises…

Explain the effect

  • This creates a sense of…
  • This suggests that…
  • The reader is left feeling…
  • It reminds me of…

Give your view

  • What struck me most was…
  • I found … effective because…
  • I'm not convinced that…
  • For me, the strongest line is…

Say it

Write it: a short analysis

Write four or five sentences about the poem. Use this shape: what the poet does → an example from the poem → the effect on the reader → your view.

Your analysis
Start with: "In 'London', Blake uses repetition to…". Quote the repeated phrase, describe how it sounds when performed, and say what it makes you feel about the city.
Compare with a model paragraph (after you have written your own)

In "London", Blake uses repetition to make suffering feel inescapable. The word "every" appears five times in the second stanza, so the lines sound like a drumbeat, and each "cry" and "voice" adds to the pressure. When I read it aloud I wanted to speed up and then stop dead at "I hear". The metaphor "mind-forg'd manacles" suggests that people are trapped by their own beliefs rather than by physical chains, which I found more disturbing than a simple description of poverty. For me, the poem works because the speaker is walking among the people he describes.

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Your Turn — Write a Slam Piece

Pick a PERSON in your life who shaped you. A parent, grandparent, sibling, teacher, friend, ex. Someone whose name you wouldn't have to think twice about. We're going to write a slam piece about them using today's tools.

Writing timer
15 minutes. Don't edit while you write.
15:00
Stanza 1 — The hook
ONE short line. Declarative. Personal. Tells the audience this is a poem about THIS person and nothing else. Something like "I have my mother's tongue" or "My brother taught me how to lie."
Stanza 2 — Anaphora about what you DO have / are / inherited from them
Three or four lines starting with the same phrase. "I do not have their ___" or "I have their ___" or "She gave me ___".
A frame to follow
Same opening phrase thing 1.
Same opening phrase thing 2.
Same opening phrase thing 3.
Stanza 3 — Direct address to the audience
Break the fourth wall. Ask the audience a real question they can answer in their head. Make them complicit in what you're saying.
A frame to follow
You — describe someone in the audience —
have you ever a question that lands universal?
Stanza 4 — Code-switching (or a phrase only they used)
Include a word or phrase from a different language, dialect, or register. Could be a regional saying, a family in-joke, a phrase in another language. Then say what it meant — three different things it meant. Like the Coleraine stanza.
A frame to follow
They used to say "___."
In place that meant: ___.
In place that meant: ___.
In place that meant: ___.
Stanza 5 — The volta
The turn. One or two lines starting with "But here is what...", "And here is what I never...", "Until I learned...", or "Now I know...". This is where the poem pivots.
A frame to follow
And here is what I never / I learned / they didn't tell me —
the pivot.
Stanza 6 — Return + closing beat
Return to the opening line (or echo it). End with one line of normal length, a pause, and then TWO OR THREE WORDS as the closing beat.
A frame to follow
Return to / echo of opening line
One more normal line about it
pause
Two or three words. The moment the room reacts.
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Tab 7 of 7

Free Write — And Then Perform

Slam pieces are written to be performed. So the final exercise has two parts: write it, then SAY it aloud.

Your prompt
Write a slam piece about something you care about that you've never written about before. Could be a place, a moment, a belief, a regret, an act of resistance, an act of love. About 30–40 lines. Free verse.

Try to use at least FIVE of today's eight tools: hook, personal stakes, direct address, anaphora, code-switching, volta, closing beat.
Free-write timer
20 minutes to write. Then read aloud.
20:00
Stuck? Open this for ways to start
  • "I come from ___."
  • "My name means ___, but ___."
  • "Nobody asked, but ___."
  • "I was told ___. I learned ___."

Use one of these as your first line, or ignore them completely. A first line only has to get you moving. You can change it later.

Now the test — perform it

Stand up. Find a clear bit of floor. Read your poem aloud at a steady performance pace — not too fast, not too slow. Mark on your draft:

  1. Where did you stumble? Those lines are too long or awkwardly broken.
  2. Where did you feel the energy DIP? Those moments need an image, a turn, or a cut.
  3. Where did you feel the energy LAND? Protect those lines — they're working.
  4. Did you hold the pause before the closing beat? Try it again, longer. Count "one Mississippi" in your head.

What's next in the series

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