The Raglan Shire Tiny Poetry Slam

by Marcel Mosswood

Last week was my first time joining the Tiny Poetry Slam at the Raglan Shire. It was so much fun and cute! I can say it’s a poetry reading even where participant creates silly poetry and after the reading all who attend throw waffles, turkey, rubber ducks and toast to the participant as applause. In my opinion, Tiny Poetry Slam is a good way to be creative, silly, and fun! So, after it ended that day, I decided to interview Copper Mistral for SL Newser.

The Tiny Poetry Slam. This when I got rubber ducks and turkeys as applause after reading a poetry that I created

Marcel: Hi Copper, what makes you think that people in Second Life need such an event like The Tiny Poetry Slam?

Copper Mistral: All people have the ability to be creative in some way. Many people who can't paint or draw, or do hands-on art like knitting may feel, or even have been told that because they're not visually creative, they can't be creative at all.  But just about everyone can use words in some way. Other poetry slams I've attended in real life were often overly stuffy, and looked down on poets who just wanted to have fun and be silly with their words. Like the tinies of SL, Tiny Poetry Slam is all about having fun.

Marcel: Who are the avatars behind this event?

Copper Mistral: The hosts are Copper Mistral, Stereo Nacht, and Jillan McMillan. Raglan Shire Magistrate Zayn Till wanted to start a regular poetry event in Raglan and asked if I would be interested in hosting it. I had been attending the Wulfenbach poetry slam at the now-closed Mamma Gkika's and jumped at the opportunity to bring a poetry slam to Raglan. Stereo Nacht was asked to attend and give some guidance in getting things started. She fell for the tinies and joined our ranks, becoming ONE OF US!

Marcel: What a cool team! Is there an real life event that inspired you to create this event?

Copper Mistral: Not particularly, though it has been influenced by an real life slam I used to attend at the now-closed Zoomdweebie's Tea Bar in Wichita, Kansas, and that slam saw some of my tiny poetry performed for an RL audience.

Marcel: I see this event is held in the Raglan Shire, a community for tinies and Dinkies, is it open for biggies to participate?

Copper Mistral: Absolutely! We welcome everyone, all sizes, shapes, av's, as long as they behave themselves. While we throw applause, we do ask that people be respectful, not interrupt, and keep things family-friendly.

Marcel: Waffles, rubber ducks, popcorn, who has the idea of using those funny things? And why use them?

Copper Mistral: Thrown applause is one of the elements that came to us from the Wulfenbach Poetry Slam. Over there, books and bottles were frequently thrown around as applause. Being tinies, waffles are a natural choice for us, but we've used everything from waffles to anvils, rubber ducks to wrenches, as well as books, snowballs, paintings, and more! We do it because it's fun, it's funny, and it's something you just don't see that often. For those who prefer not to get pelted by everything from soup to nuts, we have a party cannon, which fires only balloons and confetti. All one has to do is ask that they not be buried by rubber ducks.

Marcel: Are the participants also poetry artists in real life? For example, a painting in SL was made by the artist in real life.

Copper Mistral: Some are, yes. All of our original poetry is written by someone, after all. Many of us would not consider ourselves "real" poets, but the words still come with feeling and meaning.  Some do write considerable poetry outside of SL. Others might not have written a poem since leaving school until they joined us at Tiny Poetry Slam and felt the urge to join in the fun.

Marcel: Can you tell me about the philosophy behind the rules on the board "Be creative, get inspired, ignore the roolz, add extra silly"? This is so interesting, while other community trying to keep the rules of poetry.

Copper Mistral: So much of real life is seriousness. We work, we have health problems, we take care of others. Second Life is a welcome escape, no matter how little time we can spend here.  Tinies are all about having fun and helping each other out. At Tiny Poetry Slam, we firmly believe that poetry should not be all super serious and stuff. Sure there's lots of fun, silly poetry out there, but it's usually "for kids." Why can't everyone else have fun, silly poetry? Enter the beloved Pawku. A form of poetry unique to Raglan Shire. A pawku is like a haiku but without all the rules. A typical pawku is three lines (more or less), may or may not rhyme, and has as many or as few sillybulls (syllables) as needed to make it work. They're almost always pure silliness, but occasionally have a touch of seriousness or a good dose of friendship and love. After all, tinies are a caring group, and our friends are very important to us.

Marcel: Thank you, Copper, very nice info here for avatar who like to join the Tiny Poetry Slam.

The Raglan Shire Tiny Poetry Slam is held every Monday at 6 PM SLT, here is the LM:

https://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Heron%20Shire/163/76/115

Marcel Mosswood