I recently attended a poetry slam at a middle school — I’m in a service class at DePaul in which I mentor 6th graders and help them with creative writing — and that was our final event/ celebration for the whole quarter. The kids were awesome and very brave to get up on stage in front of their friends and share their work. I’m a huge sap, so I always cry at these things. Still, I was a little taken aback by one of the students’ poems… it was about Fortnite. His poem was literally titled Fortnite.
Fortnite is a video game that has become incredibly popular recently. You land somewhere on a huge map with a bunch of other people and try to kill them all and take their resources so that you’re the last one standing. Excuse my lack of sophistication here, I’m no expert in video games and I find it difficult to explain without proper vocabulary. The only reason I even know what this is is because I’ve watched my bf play it for hours… and hours. I’ve come to hate it a little bit because he ignores me, BUT it does look entertaining, I suppose.
Anyway, this child felt so enamored with this game that he was compelled to write a poem about it, and it was quite good, actually. He discussed the hectic search for resources, the thrill of the kill, and the jubilation of winning a match (I believe theres a ton of people in one match, like, more than 70, so if you win, that’s kind of impressive). If playing hours of video games can stir up enough emotion in children that they go out and write poems, I am ALL for it.
