Poetry Review 15 

Matrex Kilgore: Using the Music Inside Yourself and the Text

by Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA)

Bibliography

Texas Commission on the Arts (2021, May 6). Matrex Kilgore: Using the music inside yourself and the text [Video]. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPtkLAmHMdc.

Summary

Matrex Kilgore: Using the music inside yourself and the text is an instructional video on how to improve your reading and performance of poetry. Kilgore is a multidisciplinary theatrical director/composer/creator/designer in Austin, TX. He directs local plays as well as teaches college students by teaching and directing theater.

Kilgore dives into the video by describing his objective to help the performance element of poetry. While large parts of the video are able to be used with young children, other parts (to include the introduction) may better reach and speak to older students. Topics include rhythm, emotion, feeling, pacing, and volume. Kilgore also touches on white space in poetry and how to maneuver around the corners of line breaks and the place where the line ends.

Analysis

Several examples Kilgore employs would easily reach young children. For instance, he shares that performance is often like driving a car and its volume and pace. Everywhere he drives, he does not maneuver like he is on a racetrack. Also, he does not always drive the same speed. He may drive differently for a funeral procession than at the drag race. Thinking of the rhythm of the poem and its pace, the words move around the corners. An example of a Bronte poem is used to demonstrate stopping at a stop sign. The volume and emotion of the emergency responder vehicle is also invoked as an example. Plenty of imagery and metaphors are used to illustrate points Kilgore makes, incorporating poetry into the presentation.

Spotlight Activity

Using this video in a library, I would target an audience of secondary students. Also helpful would be if students may already have written poems or taken the risk of performing them previously. Kilgore’s video may confuse younger students who already know how to read a poem and what to do regarding performance. Kilgore’s examples and advice is about polishing and improving a work previously created. I may invoke students to write their own poetry, and then I would show the video before students practised reciting or performing with each other. Other things to try would include collaborating with the theater teacher on actors performing a poem.