Poetry slam which is believed to be originated from Ireland, became rather popular throughout the world within recent years. The format of it allows people with poetic inclines to express themselves freely through performing, recital of poems, story-telling or even hip-hop. The places where poetry slams are held vary from bars to cinemas and meadows. Casjen Ohnesorge, a German teacher and poet who came to Georgia several months ago is one of the fervent followers of poetry slams. He remembers to have written a first poem on a train and gotten a chance to recite it on one of such gatherings. The concept and the atmosphere appealed to him. Ever since, he admits to have become addicted to it. On a stage he is able to be someone else, a character of his poem: “I shout, I sing, I dance, I yell” he admits. By Now, on his account are over 100 poetry slams he took part in. Casjen often travels around from one German city to another, for one single reason, to attend and to participate in poetry slams. Now that he is in Georgia, he feels somewhat nostalgic about performing, being devoid of such possibility. Two of his flat-mates however to be most frequent and regular audience to whom he recites his new creations.
The last name of Casjen, Ohnesorge is literary translated from German to English as “without worries”. A poet is always asked whether it’s his artistic name, however it is not. Casjen looks up to his last name and enjoys every bit of life, nevertheless he believes that people who write poetry are never only on the “light side of life.” In fact, according to Casjen, to be a good performing poet one should be a bit paranoid and have a divided character. On one hand, a person should be an extravert and outgoing, but on the other, he should be able to enjoy sad, lonely and calm moments, to observe and to reflect upon the things he sees in everyday life. What appeals to Casjen the most in poetry is a possibility to feel emotions and situations that one would not be able to experience otherwise. Then, to return to real life and look at it with different eyes.
In Georgia, Casjen started two initiatives, one to be the translation of Georgian poetry into German. As a German teacher he involved his students first into this activity, then people from outside gradually started to join in. Every month people who are willing and interested gather at Goethe institute’s cafй and have spontaneous translation evenings. Georgian poets translate and German native speakers help them out to structure their works. Casjen believes that poetry is easier in a foreign language than prose. No special knowledge is required to be able to create fascinating sentences. The structure of poetry gives way to free self-expression. One can suffice with a simple phrase, perhaps repetitive, with a bit of variations to produce interesting results. Casjen himself is fond of so-called hybrid poetry, where he mixes and rhymes different languages with each-other. He has not used any Georgian words as text material yet, although the sound of Georgian resembles him Spanish, Polish, Arabic and Turkish all together. Living in Georgia however, became a source of inspiration to him to such extent he wrote 1.5 hour worth of poems to recite and he did too in one of the prestigious stages in Germany. The evening was dedicated to Georgian impressions and encounters.
Yet another initiative of Casjen is to stir up the poetry slam in Georgia. In his opinion, he would make a good MC (master of ceremony) for such events. But most of its success will depend on Georgian poets being active of course. The rules of poetry slams are as follows: the piece of text should be produced by an author and participant, the contest has a time limit, so a performer should be able to fit in that time frame, and then the audience decides who the winner is. Normally the scores are from 1 to 10. The contest is open to everyone. The poetry slam could be dedicated to one certain subject, like a detective poetry slam for instance. However, for Georgia, it would still be irrational to set any genre limits until the movement has developed enough.
Casjen believes that Georgia already has interesting poetic traditions and he could not but contribute to development of such events to expand expression possibilities for Georgians poets in the future, because the poetry slams is an immediate chance to promote yourself, to be heard and have the audience listen to your works.
A Poem written by Casjen Ohnesorge dedicated to a Malaysian “princess” seen in a tube.
Human Touch
Looking at you, I see so much beauty
That if I was at work
I’d let go of my duty
Maybe a sailor with the best crew on his boat
Could withstand you
By hitting the road
Or the guys at the Oil tanking site
Who love their girls, like their wives
After work, at night
Or a guy so stressed and ambitious
That all would stay dry
The days, the nights, even the luring issues
But there’d be some firemen keeping up the fighting
Fighting the fire,
Lit by your lightning
Since they are the men bedevilled with doubt
Struck by you transformed to stone they’d stand
Cold, ridiculous but proud
And may only be revived by this
Your tender hand
Singapur, March 2002
4.06.2010
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