Making Multimedia Poetry

You already know that written words can have a huge impact on your life and community — but here at Power Poetry, we want you to take your words off of the page and onto the screen. Many of you use your cellphone or computer to create images everyday with applications and programs like Instragram, Photoshop, iMovie and others.  But these images and video clips aren’t just for Facebook. You can also use them on Power Poetry — check out these other Power Poets for inspiration, or go ahead and try it! 

1. Video. Video can add depth to your poems through visuals and sound. You might want to record yourself speaking your poem, or maybe act out your poem, putting a voiceover of the text in the background. Check out this video poem for inspiration — warning: it’s mad good.   
2. Record your voice. Do you feel a little weird if you see your face on camera? (Trust us, you’re not the only one!) No worries! You can still make an awesome video using your voice. Most cell phones and other electronic devices have a recording option, so you can record and upload voice files. Try experimenting with volume to make certain points in the poem more dramatic. You can also record other sounds to play in the background while you read. If you speak another language, you can speak in one language and have a translation in another — or even put your two languages over each other in one poem.  And why not use music and images in the background — or even animation?
3. PowerPoint. You might be familiar with making PowerPoint presentations for school, but did you ever think of combining this program with your poetry? You might want to think about dedicating each slide of a PowerPoint presentation to a sentence or stanza of your poem, depending on how long it is. Then, you can add pictures to go with each part of the poem, and add effects like colors, movement and sound.
4. Multimedia. You don’t have to stick to just one of these ideas — go crazy and combine them! Maybe you’d like to embed a video in a PowerPoint presentation.  Or use your camera to pan across one image for the duration of your poem. Just remember: when you’re passionate about your poems, other people are, too. (And if Don Draper can do it, so can you.)

If you have any other ideas about making multimedia poems, let us know — we love hearing from Power Poets. And remember to upload your poems to the site so even more poets can be inspired by media to make their voices heard.