May 4, 2005

for the record…

By Tony Brown

Everything I do on stage is a poem unless I say otherwise. Everything I write is a poem unless I say otherwise.

I’m in the Jack McCarthy camp on this one. Once you have your poetic license, you get to decide whether what you write is poetry or not. No one else.

If I decide that I’m going to write a 350 page work with no line breaks and call it a poem, it’s a poem.

(This is not a poem.)

And now that I’ve said this, I realize what I dislike so much about the slam scene. People aren’t even thinking of themselves, empowering themselves, as poets. I consider that stage my church. That’s where I worship God. For me to do anything less is blasphemy.

I don’t want that to sound superior, arrogant, or angry. Seriously, it probably limits me — it’s hard for me to have fun when I’m seeking transcendence, and I’m always bound to be disappointed. I hold other people to impossible standards. I hold MYSELF to impossible standards. But I always want to do magic when I write, and to re-create the world when I perform. I’m sure that’s not where a lot of people are. I’m not sure where I go with this.

I try not to write anything that won’t simultaneously stand up on stage and on page. I don’t really believe in performance poetry — just good poetry performed well, aiming for authenticity, and capable of living past me to the next readers.

I take it back. I don’t write pieces. I don’t perform pieces.

I write poems, unless I say differently, and I almost never do.

I’m a fucking poet, a poet almost to the exclusion of being a functioning human being. No wonder I’m miserable.

I say this now because I’m finding it very hard to continue to call this paper I’m writing a poem — but I’m still trying.

About Tony Brown

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A poet with a history in slam, lots of publications; my personal poetry and a little bit of daily life and opinions. Read the page called "About..." for the details. View all posts by Tony Brown
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2005 at 10:02 pm and posted in uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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