Kelly Olszewski, 20, wowed the audience at the Valentine’s Day poetry reading on Feb. 11 as the only participant who was daring enough to recite two of her own slam poems.

Slam poetry is a type of spoken word poetry based more around the performance than the poem itself.

During her charismatic performance of “The Lie in Love,” an angry poem about exes, the crowd in the De Anza College WRC applauded wildly to acknowledge the subject matter.

“Don’t pretend you know who I am,” she said, to “yeahs” and “right-ons” shouted from the audience. “Small talk makes love too easy, so erase it completely.”

She wrote the piece with her slam poetry group hoping to encourage listeners to “not rely on that one guy.”

“Boys Are So Confusing,” her second poem, was meant to be an uplifting juxtaposition to “The Lie in Love.” It was written as a rebuttal to a poem titled, “Girls Are So Confusing,” which she had heard performed at a poetry slam. She wrote it based on the same meter and cleverly changed the wording, transforming the message of the original poem.

“One minute they want to see you/ Then they’ll push you far away/ They always want to be there/But they never want to stay,” was a line that once again got the audience hooting in adoration, mostly the high pitched squeals of females.

Olszewski has been writing poetry for six years, since her freshman year at Pioneer High School. She quickly got involved in a Slam Poetry team in which she was the only freshman member among juniors and seniors. The team’s motto was, “slam is the difference between poetry for the stage, and poetry for the page.”

The veterinary science major is currently taking Elit11, Intro to Poetry, with Professor Bob Dickerson. She decided to take the course because she had been overly focused on her major and lacking the creative outlet that poetry gives her. “He creates an environment that feeds your inspirations,” she said of Dickerson.

“I like the way she moves her hands when she recites her own poems. She is a brilliant interpreter of poetry. She always seems to come up with a provocative, exciting way of looking at a poem,” said Dickerson.

Not only is this Renaissance woman a poet and a future veterinarian, but she is also an amateur model. She likes to have all of her bases covered and grabs at any opportunity that allows her to be a creative individual.

Olszewski suggests to those interested in poetry or under-the-radar art, to check out Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana at http://www.maclaarte.org.