| Sara Bynoe’s Teen Angst: A Celebration of REALLY BAD Poetry contains probably some of the very worst poetry in print today. It won’t cause you to scream out in pain and agony (like Vogon poetry in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), but it could make you very uncomfortable as you squirm in your seat, recognizing with great embarrassment the kind of poetry you may have attempted to write during those angst-ridden teenage years. And then, before you know it, you just might break into a momentary outburst of laughter.
"It’s time we admit it, we all wrote poetry during those painful years," says teen-poetry connoisseur Bynoe, who has turned her popular website into a book. "So why not look back and be grateful that we’re over that phase? And if people can muster the courage to laugh at themselves, then perhaps this world could be a better place."
Teen Angst is a collection of poems written during adolescence by 32 authors who are now adults. "It’s about people who’ve survived ‘teenagedom’ and are now comfortable sharing the humour that comes from the awkward rhymes and metaphors of their teenage poetry," says Bynoe.
Bynoe herself is a former offender. Now 24 years old, she can laugh at the 450-odd poems she wrote from 1990 to 1998, during her adolescence in Calgary. "Something would spark me almost daily, some overwhelming feeling of sadness, loneliness or pain, and these feelings would be intolerable until I wrote a poem," she recalls.
Bynoe wrote her very first love poem when she was 13, inspired by her boyfriend telling her that he loved her after two weeks of dating. Her response was a poem entitled "More Than Like." The last verses read, "If you must know – I do like you/but it’s more than like/It’s not quite love/ but it’s more than like."
A former theatre student at Mount Royal College and a recent graduate of Studio 58 in Vancouver, Bynoe has combined poetry with performance, bringing teen-angst poetry to the stage. And since launching the www.TeenAngstPoetry.com website in 2000, she has hosted more than 20 cabaret-style evenings, mostly attracting a crowd of twentysomethings who want to share their embarrassing poetry with other teenage survivors.
"I would describe our poetry nights as poetry reading meets stand-up comedy meets AA," says Bynoe.
So why is teen-angst poetry funny and potentially therapeutic for those who participate in public readings? Perhaps it’s all tied into realizing that you weren’t alone in feeling so much pain during adolescence, and that through these gatherings your pain can be finally acknowledged, even if it’s a decade or two later. Just like a good therapy session, once you’ve dealt with the past – come face to face with it – you can move on.
But Bynoe’s ongoing projects involving teen-angst poetry keep her close to the subject. Not only is her website growing on a monthly basis, now holding more than 300 poems from more than 100 contributors worldwide, she’s been giving writing workshops and adjudicating writing contests. The publication this spring of Teen Angst, her first book, in both Canada and the U.S., promises to bring her fascination with bad teen verse to an even wider audience.
Bynoe will launch the book on April 7 in New York. Later in the month, she’ll be promoting it in Calgary, which includes a writing workshop at the Glenmore Square Library on April 22. "I’ll be working with teens and giving them insight into the various styles of poetry. My emphasis will be to move beyond teen-angst poetry," she says. Bynoe hopes to inspire young writers and expose them to styles of writing not taught in school. "I want to give them guidance so that they can express who they truly are," she says.
Even if Teen Angst is, as the title claims, a collection of really bad poetry, the poems are honest, heartfelt, amusing and sometimes insightful. It’s a recommended read for parents who can’t quite remember what it feels like to be a teenager and for anyone out there brave enough to experience teen angst all over again.
You should know you also suck
Here are some samplings from Sara Bynoe’s Teen Angst: A Celebration of REALLY BAD Poetry, published by St. Martin’s Griffin:
"Untitled" by Michelle Bjolverud
I used to be the apple of your eye
But now it seems I’m just a sty
I can’t say I miss your love
It must be a sign from above
I’ve got to move on to better things
What we had I guess it was just a fling
So say goodbye to days of old
Because our blooming love has turned to mould
"You Also Suck" by Sarah F.
So fine then, I’m annoying
And I’m immature at best
I only irritate you
And I’m stupid and obsessed
But just ’cuz I’m pathetic
Did you have to be a jerk?
If only you were honest
We could have made it work
But the way that you ignored me was evil and unfair
You left me on a lifeboat that had long run out of air
So maybe I’m a loser and I’m not even worth a fuck,
But you acted really beastly
So you should know
You Also Suck! |
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