Playing with fire

On a Wednesday night in December, Sky Smith is unfazed by the sharp chill of the wind coming off the Mississippi River as he rapidly spins two flaming, tethered balls the size of fists through the air to make the shape of a flower.

Smith, a 21-year-old who has loved working with rope and tying knots since he was a Boy Scout, has since channeled that love into a new hobby: spinning poi.

Poi is a type of performance art that allows the spinner to create geometric shapes with tethered balls, or "heads," in the air. Poi also refers to the spinning equipment, which can vary in size and effects, including fire, glowing LED lights or plain colored balls.

Smith says he first encountered poi at a concert earlier in 2015. Instantly mesmerized by the artistry and elaborate shapes the spinner was making in the air, he decided he wanted to try it out for himself.

He got his chance in May at a music festival called MoRoots in Steelville, Missouri. After meeting some other people who like to spin poi, one offered to let Smith borrow his set to practice. Seeing Smith's heightened interest and early passion for spinning, he offered to let him have the set to continue practicing.

Sky Smith demonstrates his LED poi skills in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

Smith has been practicing ever since, and says he has found the hobby to be a "meditative" experience.

"It's like a flow thing, like a focus thing," he said. "I really like it. It lets me think, because I'm not thinking as much about the poi when I'm doing it as much as I am about letting my body do it and just letting it happen."

Smith says he began spinning poi with instruments called contact poi, because he can do body rolls off his arms.

"This is what I started out spinning and it's my favorite; it's probably what I'll always use just so I can do stuff like that," he said.

Beyond spinning poi, Smith likes to travel, paint, skateboard and listen to live music. He plays guitar and piano, and likes to produce his own electronic music in his downtime.

Sky Smith demonstrates his fire poi skills in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"I tend to devote a portion of time to a thing at a time ... I see progression as why only halfway do something? You might as well do it to its extent the fullest that you are able to. Then you always have that set of skills, even if it's useless to everyone else, like this might be pointless -- spinning poi, making cool shapes in the air -- it might be useless to someone, but to me, it means something," he said.

Spinning poi isn't always fun and games, though. Smith says in his practice with fire poi he has accidentally caught his hair and clothes on fire, but hasn't had any major flame-related disasters. Although potentially dangerous, the fire aspect of spinning poi is what drew Smith to the art in the first place, and his goal has been to work with it enough to control it without burning himself.

"I was always that kid that played with fire growing up, I was always that kid, the one you're like, 'Definitely don't give him the matches 'cause he's going to try to blow something up 'cause it seems fun,'" he said.

Fire poi are made of a wooden or metal center, along with a pivot and hook to latch handles to the heads so the poi spinner has something to hold on to. A knot called a monkey's fist, which Smith conveniently already knew how to tie, encircles the center. The knot can then be doused with kerosene and lit on fire for spinning.

Wanting to get started as soon as possible, Smith ordered some Kevlar rope and made his own set of flammable heads.

"I really like the fire, the fire aspect of it clears my head incredibly," he said.

Smith also likes to spin what he calls a rope dart, a single long rope with a flammable ball attached to the end.

In the same vein as his encouragers, Smith says people should follow their dreams and invest in the things they are passionate about.

"I think poi, hula-hoop, rope dart and even as far as to say playing an instrument -- doing any sort of activity that's good for yourself and that you are bettering yourself in, that you can continually progress and makes you happy and makes you content -- whatever is your thing and your flow, you should stick with it and enhance that," he said.

Smith often spins at the Cape Girardeau riverfront when the gates are open. He goes with or without an audience, and to help gain some clarity.

"Whenever I just feel the need to clear my head, I'll just come down here and burn. It doesn't really matter if anyone's down here, I just like coming down here to do it," he said.

When Smith has the time and money, he attends as many music festivals as possible. Since he began working with poi, he found that people could be hired as entertainers for festivals when spinning poi, hula hooping or other interesting acts.

Having been to at least five festivals this summer -- some to perform -- Smith says he plans on auditioning next year for as many festivals as possible and using his talent to enjoy the things he loves for free.

Currently a Southeast Missouri State University student, Smith says eventually he would like to move west and work full time on producing music.