No holds were barred as words flowed at the first heat of the Tasmanian Poetry Slam on Tuesday night in Launceston.
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Clusters of clicks applauded slick rhymes and rhythms as slammers competed to impress the crowd for a place in the Tasmanian Final on August 30.
With raw words and their wits slammers competed in their two minute time slot, without props or accompaniments.
Judges were picked randomly from the crowd to score between 0 and 10, with the rest of the audience given the chance to vote for their favourite poet in the people’s choice award.
Few topics were off limit, a comic rendition of child birth followed a poem about racism.
If her parents could look past the colour of their skin, then she asked why can’t you, the poet said to a room of clicking and clapping audience.
If the poetry slam could be summed up in a sentence taken from E.J. Robinson, “don’t piss off a writer”.