Rustbelt 2013

 Do you know what love is? Even if you think you do, you don’t know it like Neil Hilborn. A man with extreme OCD finds his first love that can distract and break his habits but also leaves him for the very same reason she loved him. He creates a mood that is at times humorous as he talks about “kissing her goodbye 16 times or 24 times if its Wednesday” but also heart breaking when she leaves him.  Now that he’s alone, he has finally found something that hurts enough to break his habits and “leave the lights on” or “not lock the doors.” This shows the theme that love is truly the most powerful thing a person can feel. When Neil is performing you can see his habits, like when repeats words 5 times over. It is very moving that anyone could ever make him change and the fact that she did and left him is dreadful and heartbreaking. 

 Anthony Amorim

 How much would you give to go back in time and be seven years old again? I'd give a lot and I bet you'd give even more. Anthony suggests that growing up is anyone's worst nightmare but yet you keep bagging for it to come closer until it's to late. "God knows what we have became," when we pick our friends based on what people wear and how much money we have. The mood of this poem is serious, it makes you realize you're just like the people he describes. Sometimes you ask yourself "when did I stop being a four year old? when did seven and eight pass me by?" That shows the theme of the poem is you wish away your youth then as soon as its gone you realized you didn't appreciate the time that you can never get back. I enjoyed this poem but at the same time it made me feel guilty that I do everything he describes as negative. I already know that I wasted my youth by wishing I was seventeen, he just opens my eyes to it even more.

Dawn  Saylor

"He loved her more then me and I loved him more then me" this poem is about Dawn looking for love but only finding disappointment and even rape. She starts off young and confused then as the poem goes on she becomes older with an understanding of the world that most people will never have in their life time. The mood comes across as disturbing at first until you realize shes the victim. A women confused who "traded integrity for security and called it love" but isn't that what everyone does these days? The theme of this poem is that "you must look yourself in the eye and say... I am beautiful" in order to really be happy. If you can't love yourself then how will anyone else. I found this poem extremely moving and anyone watching her would learn and truly believe what she is saying.