The EMU’s ground floor coffee shop, the Buzz, is awash in red and yellow light. Abstract art is scattered over the walls, mics are set up in a spotlit area, and a crowd of black-clad freshmen wait with nervous anticipation. Rhythmic beats are pounded out on conga drums as an older man takes the “stage,” firing out a stream of complex verbiage as he introduces himself. The man is
Dr. George Moore, the black-clad freshmen are his students and the event is the Invention of Metaphor freshman seminar poetry reading.
In its second year of existence, Invention of Metaphor is a class that, according to Moore, is designed to help students come up with new forms of imagery in poetry. The freshmen read a wide range of poets, write and critique poetry and perform in front of each other. The culmination of the class, which took place March 3 this term, is a public performance the students put together themselves, creating their own advertising and preparing their best work.
“In the class, students write a great deal of poetry, which I severely line edit so that only the most powerful images remain,” Moore said. “We also work on performance and stage presence in preparation for the public reading.”
Moore has plenty of experience in public performance, having been a part of or visitor of poetry scenes all over the world, as well as performing as a bass player for Allen Ginsberg.
According to his students, the class has been a positive experience.
“I never wrote poetry before I took this seminar,” freshman history major Caitlin Kilcourse said. “Now I’ve written poems five pages long. It has really helped me learn to express myself through images.”
For the final public performance, the 11 seminar members wore variations on all-black dress. Congas and audience participation that was “short of tackling the reader” added to the 1950s Beat poetry feel. Moore introduced the poets by reading individual poems he wrote about them and their work. Readings were accompanied by random conga taps and even finger-snapping in place of applause. Some students said that, despite the theatrics, the performance still made them nervous.
“I do classical singing, so I’m used to performing,” Kilcourse said before the reading. “But I’m still a little nervous about reading my own stuff.”
Freshman Josh Gordon feels differently about performing.
“I stopped caring, since we’re all comfortable with each other,” he said. “It helps that I write comically, so I get to say ‘boobies’ a lot and make people laugh.”

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